Pages of Penny
by TheChub509
Summary: Penny the andriod has a mission to accomplish. A mission of nobility and duty that she has been customized to perform. Combat ready, she sets out to fulfill her function to observe and protect the people of Vale from the coming war her sponsor Mr. Ironwood insists is coming, soon. But is she really, truly, combat ready?
1. PoP: ch 1 - WOAH, INTRO!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! This is my first Fanfiction work to publish here. The story is about Penny, from RWBY, so all character rights belong to the appropriate copyrights (most likely all the rights are Rooster Teeth). I started writing this after the finale of Volume 2, so everything prior is relevant, and Volume 3 should start sometime between 10n minutes to 72 hours since RTX started today.**

 **SO, before we start, I'm of the opinion to feel obligated to say this is not a shipping story, so don't expect any lovey dovey here. Maybe later, but it's not a core part of the story. So, without further ado, please read and entertain yourself too.**

She hums a ballad her father sang to himself, out in the public, watching with interest at all the people milling about their business. A woman going into a clothing store alone, a child walking with his father, an officer sweeping by the street, each person with their own purpose. The girl in tin green amused herself trying to create reasons and lines of events that lead each person to here this day.

She tried to ignore the AK-290's, the Atlesian Paladin 290s, the new security force robots, that kept watch on her and the local population as they patrolled the area. Her father and his friends were so very protective of her that they have a dedicated system in the of AK-290s to keep an eye on her throughout the day. While she enjoyed the attention her father gives her, she knows at times it's too much.

The sun was setting on the day though, time was running out. At night, she was required to return home and maintain herself, and wasn't allowed out at night. It's been a few days since she was last allowed outside at night, having snuck away from people. Now, if she has any intention of doing anything wrong, she gets the hiccups.

An odd sensation, hiccups; a sudden lurch from the base of the throat, like something poking up hard. Penny wondered if all human hiccups felt like this.

"Sensational," she muttered, giddy. Humans are funny.

Again, she noticed the time, and plucked herself up from the stone bench she was leaning on. A quick glance revealed a few cracks forming underneath. Penny poked it, disgruntled, but continued on her way, skipping.

She walked down the avenue to the Center of the city activity, The Plaza, with a small peaceful park and a few café and restaurants across the street. Passing by, Penny realized the faunus girl companioned by her friends is there again today.

A Faunus is a person with inborn animal traits on their physical body. While not always obvious, this red-headed girl was very obvious, without an attempt to hide the rabbit ears that protrude from her head. Penny liked to test herself by placing the altered body parts appropriately. This girl has an extended temporal lobe for a second set of ears for acute hearing. Penny was actually concerned, wondering if the girl could hear a creak in her body, or maybe a hum of her Dust Engine Core. The amount of muffling was limited by her need for mobility, after all.

Always, as Penny walks by, the rabbit Faunus stares subtly at her, and turns red and looks away when Penny glances at her as well.

Unbothered, Penny continues walking through the city of Vale to a fenced community, passing by with a keycode, and strolls into one of the lavish homes yards. Instead of going inside, though, Penny travels around to the back into a diminished garden with a gazebo and stands in the center of it. A scanner pops up on one of the pillars and chimes. Around Penny the floor drops into a spiral staircase, and she descends.

Inside, underground, a lab was hidden, full of mechanical systems and heavy duty mechanical tools for cutting, welding and molding and a few cabinents around the room. There was a table, with heavy-load chairs and what appeared to be a full body chair before a cluster-ball of electronic readouts and monitors. Nearby, was a corner shower large enough for the table to fit..

Penny wandered towards the half of the room that appeared to be fore living and sat down to remove her shoes. She stopped to cautiously remove her pants, revealing smooth glossy skin. At her ankles, she disposes of her socks, her toeless feet dance as she rolls her ankle, checking for any abnormalities in her joints, and repeated the action on her knees. To check her hips, Penny performed a series of contortions not possible to do in succession, the skin stretching and faintly transparent closer to the base of her hips. Pleased, she removed her overall skirt and shirt.

She examined herself in the only beauty mirror in the room for a visual inspection. Her glossy skin melded over some casing near the torso and elastic plating comprised her body. Taking a deep breath, Penny breathed in, fingers digging into her sternum, and pulled her chest apart. Something inside her beeped a few times as her ribcage cavity opened, revealing the inner workings of her body, and the power core, her Dust Core Engine, glowing with a reddish hue. Penny examined each of the wiring and lines visually before exhaling and closing her chest and the closed cavity clicked shut again.

Penny smiled as she stared at her naked body, with the seam of the cavity just barely visible between her mounds. Reaching up, she pulled her neck collar off and opened a translucent seam to the front of her jaw, which pulled apart in two layers and exposed more cables and wiring, plus an outlet. Penny walked away from the mirror and over to body-like chair. Sitting down and positioning herself, the chair automatically strapped her legs in as Penny pulled a detachable socket from the cluster ball and plugged herself in. After hearing the clink of success, Penny sat comfortably in the chair as it automatically strapped her in and curled her into a fetus position around the ball.

There, her eyes fluttered and she looked away, at the mirror. Last thing she saw before sleeping was the mirror refection of the lab as the lights dimmed themselves and the stairs sealing the entrance.


	2. PoP: ch 2 - A New Day - Part 1 of 4

_**Pages of Penny: ch2 - A New Day - Part 1 of 4**_

Penny. That's her name. Penny, no last name. People have last names. She's not a person. Where is she? The Vale Maintenance base. Her father wanted her to try living on her own, so no one was there. The automated system woke her up. Rising from her ball bed, Penny pauses, reaching for the socket plug and pulling it from her jaw before standing up completely. The body-chair pulled away as Penny stepped off of it. She resealed her jawline and pulled her neckline down, snapping it in place with her 'fashionable' neck brace.

After that, she went to a corner of the room, a shower space, and turned on the fluids. She allowed slick orange fluid to run across her and turned it off after a moment, and picked up a brush and began to scrub herself. She started with her arms and legs, then onto her featureless body and even her back, her arms bent unnaturally as they reached areas people normally can't. With that finished, she got a hair brush and began pulling the fluid from her hair.

Now she clothes herself, her garments and topping herself with her bow. Penny approached the spiral staircase, which automoatically lowered for her to ascend. Before the stairs were complete, she looked at the schedule for the day on the other side of the room, and recalled the memorized day's schedule.

She has to appear before Ironwood today, at 3 in the estate. Maybe her father will finally come too. Other than Mr. Ironwood, Penny isn't scheduled for combat duties today so she's free to do whatever she wants until then.

Musing as she climbed the stairs, Penny considered what she could do. Beacon Academy is having classes and she won't be able to socialize with Ruby today. Yesterday was an active day with training, so today, Penny decides to collect information at the local library.

Penny walks again, heading towards The Plaza. It's been a week since the criminal Mr. Torchwick destroyed the tunnels under the Street gardens and released all the Grim upon the city. A little resentment eeked off Penny as she watched the people resume repairs again this day, as signs of the fighting were washed away; Penny was off with Ironwood, who didn't allow her to go and sent all the APS to contain the Grim from overrunning the city. Thanks to Ruby and her team, many of the grim stayed local as more hunters and huntresses arrived at the scene.

Penny only got to see the aftermath, seeing the roads being haphazardly brushed clean and now repairs erase the first piece of evidence of a battle Mr. Ironwood always warns her about.

The café shop was easily repaired having only patio décor damaged. Penny glanced at the café but didn't see the rabbit Faunus there today, or any of her friends. Passing on, the library was an obvious fixture in the city, appearing as a tower with a plaza area around it for social gatherings. Some places were fenced off as well due to damages; the sidewalk is being repaved, tree planters are empty with holes, a wall is being reinforced before being patched. Penny navigated around the construction obstacles into the main library communications tower.

Inside the Library levels is a circular three story library, with six different book lifts and two elevators. Penny uses the spiral staircase in the center to climb to the third level. Each floor had massive bookshelves, being a major city landmark each floor was nearly 15 feet high so the third floor was almost 50 feet up, giving people a view over the rooftops. People populate aisles, some parents and kids frolic around, on the first floor, as Penny climbed up, were more empty and the books thicker.

On the third story, Penny walked over to a specific shelf of sciences and pulled three books out in practiced sequence. Then she walked over to the window and exmined all the open chairs. Seeing the least comfortable one open, which was also the most durable, Penny places herself there and begins reading.

Each page took only a second to read for Penny, given her limited processor programing. With that delayed programming, she could learn and apply more effectively, as she understood the knowledge quickly that refered to the composition and placement of human biology and the inner workings each organ. Having finished the first textbook in just a few minutes, Penny rests and looks out the window, recognizing where various places are by their placements on the streets. Someone approached her from behind. At a glance, she recognized him as one of the rabbit Faunus's friends, the dark one that looks fast.

"Hey," Fox said, smiling sweetly.

 **END.**


	3. PoP: ch 3 - A New Day - Part 2 of 4

_**P.o.P: ch 3 - A New Day - Part 2 of 4**_

"No, no you did not do that!" "Yes, yes I did." Velvet, the red-headed rabbit Faunus, began hyperventilating. Coco, the brown fashioned girl, pushed her beret back and scratches her head. "You've been watching this girl every day since you first saw her and like, always, you stare at her. So instead of standing around staring, let's just meet her." Velvet turns on Coco, tense, "We've only seen her the past week while she was passing the café going wherever she goes. " "And you turn and look at her every time she comes into your earshot." Velvet throws her arms up, "Something sounded wrong! That's not an okay basis to meet someone!" "Wrong?" "Yes! Wrong! I think she might have metal plates in her body or something," Velvet demonstrated by grabbing her own arms and swinging them around. "Plates?" Coco was mystified. "It's like, a constant grinding or something in some of her joints, maybe most of them. It's terribly distressing to hear!"

Coco stares up at the ceiling, thinking. Velvet continues, "And you set Fox on her!" Velvet stops and throws herself over to the edge of the aisle and listened intently. Cautiously, Coco asked, "So?" Velvet covers her face, "It's a blessing or a curse she's so dim witted." Coco cracks a smile. Velvet punches her in the boob. "Ow! Hey! Those are delicate!" "They're too flat to hurt!" Coco stiffens. "You've built up a reputation and half of your image is those things flapping around and if one day you actually meet someone that will not take a bloody hint will blab that you're padded and you'll be a laughing stock, so shut up before you mess up more!" Coco stands frozen for a second before curling up on the floor, hiding her face muttering. Velvet stays standing trying to listen.

"Are you trying to say you want to fight me?" "No. I was trying to ask if you're interested in…"

Velvet covered her mouth, muffling her laughs as she fell to the floor. Coco glances up, still depressed, "What happened…?" "She wants to engage Fox. In combat." Coco cracked a smile, "What?!" "Oh, Yatsuhashi is there to save someone."

Coco crawled out to peek. Penny's face greeted her, far too close for comfort. "Salutations," Penny cried cheerfully, barely an inch away from Coco's face. "Um, hi?" replied Coco, unnerved. Velvet was trying to muffle her laughter and fell over shaking.


	4. PoP: ch 4 - A New Day - Part 3 of 4

**P.o.P: ch 4 - A New Day - Part 3 of 4**

Penny sat at a table, her books placed to the side while Velvet and Coco sat opposite her, looking glum and guilty. Yatsuhashi presides over them, standing off to the side like a judge, grunting once. Coco and Velvet flinches. Penny tilted her head as they looked at her apologetically. "So, um, so sorry about that," snuffed out Velvet. Coco couldn't maintain eye contact, "Yeeeaaaah, I'm sorry."

Penny tilted her head in the opposite direction now, "Sorry for what?" The two resume looking glum, casting twin glances at Yatsuhashi. He glared with the strength of a monolith. Coco sighed and relaxed, suddently jumping out of her chair at attention, "Right! I'm sorry for asking Fox to flirt with you so we can introduce ourselves!"

Everyone except Coco stared at Penny, who processed for a moment. "So that was flirting," she asked, turning to Fox who stood off to the side leaning against a bookcase. He snickered hard, trying to keep quiet still. Velvet was also trying to not laugh. Penny sat for a moment longer before speaking, "I forgive you," Coco visibly relaxed, "friend," she finished. Coco shivered in anticipation. "Friend?" "Yes. You know Ruby's team, right? That means you're friends!" Coco collapsed into her chair and face planted into the desk. Velvet blushed deeply, frozen in shock. Fox walked away laughing and Yatsuhashi smiles and nods before stepping away as well.

Penny sat in silence for a moment with the two girls. ". . . Am I wrong? You're Velvet, and you're Coco of Team CFVY, right?" pointing at each of them in turn. Velvet cowed into her hands, whimpering about other people finding out about this. Coco spoke, undeterred, "Yeah, that's us. Coco and Velvet." Penny smiles, "Salutations! My name is Penny, and I'm here as a solo combatant for the upcoming tournament, representing Atlas." Coco smiles, "Well, that was proper." Velvet, still hiding her face, tugs on Coco's sleeve. Coco took the hint, "Well, I'm Coco, born and raised in Vale, graduate of Signal and fourth tier class student in the academy, likely to be nominated to participate in the Tournament with CFVY." Velvet finally sits upright, rubbing the stress from her face, "And I'm Velvet, born outside of Vale but also a graduate of Signal. Third Tier student."

Awkward silence hums around them, the two girls try to relax as Penny happily stares at the two of them in silence. Fox watches from a soft cushioned seat by the window, waving at them encouragingly. Coco smiles directly at him and he stops, looking away. "So," Velvet attempts to talk, "How do you know Ruby and her friends?" "Yeah, how'd y'all meet?" jumped in Coco. Penny breathes in, pleased, "Weiss ran me over when she was chasing someone."

Velvet and Coco share a moment of silence, trying and failing to imagine Weiss chasing anything. "She was chasing this roughscalian Faunus that was running from authorities after stowing away on a cargo ship." Velvet and Coco were more perplexed. "Really? Do you know who the Faunus was?" inquired Velvet. Penny nods, "Sun Wukong, student representative of Minstral that was born in Vacuo, specializes in close combat weaponry. He's Blake's boyfriend now." Coco opens her mouth in motion to speak, but air fails to come out. Penny continues, "His teammate, Neptune, is a mid-ranged weapon wielder, and is also dating Weiss." Velvet sits quietly, stunned.

Coco puts a hand up, stopping Penny. "Woah, why do you know so much? Matter of fact, how did you know us?" Penny waits for Coco to put down her hand before speaking, "You're favorites for one of the nominations, given your social status and success rate with higher level quests, despite having a team that changes out equipment more often then you take missions, and I know you know RWBY because they've talked about you before. Not knowing you would be irresponsible." Coco leans back, muttering, "Something about what you said is in the wrong order. . ." Velvet spoke up, "So then, what kind of weapon do you specialize in." "I hiiiick!" Penny almost responded but hiccupped instead, getting carried away with the conversation. Covering her mouth, Penny thought hard about what she could and couldn't say. The two girls looked at her, curious. "I . . . specialize in mass combat. One versus many, that's my forte," Penny concluded, vaguely. "Soooo what's your weapon?" Coco leaned closer. Penny avoided eye contact, "Swords." Coco whistled, "that's bold." "Dangerous too. How do you train for that?" inquired Velvet. Penny twiddles her fingers, "Defense mostly. If I can't be touched, then I can't be stopped." Penny was pleased she was able to avoid saying the truth. Coco looked serious now, and Velvet sensed what Coco was going to say before the words came out. "Must be hard to be mobile with your body like that."

Penny didn't understand what Coco meant for a moment, as horror crashed upon Velvet as she stares at Coco. Penny glances between the two and realization dawned on her. Penny looked inquisitively at Velvet, who was panicking as Coco stared at Penny hard, chewing on a pencil. "So you can hear me?" Penny directed to Velvet, not so much a question. Velvet nods shamefully. Silence passed as Penny fell under the stare of Coco, and under her eyes covered in the shadow of her beret, and her voice resonating clearly at her, "Are you going to tell me?"

Penny realizes she's never experienced this pitch of emotion before, a tightness around her neck, it pressed her head down subconsciously. And Penny realizes what her body is doing, it's pitching in fear. She's experiencing fear.


	5. PoP: ch 5 - A New Day - Part 4 of 4

_**P.o.P: ch 5 - A New Day - Part 4 of 4**_

Penny hiccupped.

That'snotananswer,Ican'ttellthemthetruth

Hiccup.

"I'd rather not say," replied Penny, unnerved. Coco is still smiling pleasantly, "But I'm curious as to how you can move like that."

Ican'tlieeitheri'mnotsupposetoliesowhatshoulditellthem?maybe

Hiccup.

Velvet looks at Penny, worried.

Icouldengagenothatsabadideaengagementisbadpopulatedareaciviliansinvacinity

Velvet speaks up, "Penny, if you want to, you can leave." "If you leave, I'll still be wondering," whined Coco.

Liewhatliethisonenothatonenohowbouthislie acceptable

"Semblance. My semblance lets me stay mobile," responded Penny, almost panicked.

"Oh? How so?"

Theorystrengthnotheoryspeednotheoryhealingtheoryrecepterstheorymagnetismtheoryberserkertheoryforesight

Penny stiffly responds, "I see patterns, methods and plots of impact before they happen." "Ooooh," exhaled Coco, "scary. But how do you move quickly enough?"

Howhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowwhatbackloginputdata

Penny looks down, "It's all I do. Practice moving for my training. Work on my motions."

Coco smiles harder, baring teeth in amusement, almost chuckling, eyes never leaving Penny. She prepares to speak again, but Velvet grabs her hard. "Coco, no." Coco tears her gaze from Penny and looks at Velvet. Velvet stares hard at Coco until Coco turns back towards Penny casually, "I'm looking forward to seeing you again, Penny," and casually walks away. Velvet watches her stroll away and Fox follows behind her, jogging to catch up, worried. Penny is stuck staring at Coco's shrinking back the entire time, as Velvet tries to turn back to Penny. Penny finally notices Velvet trying to look at her, Penny stares unbreakingly at Velvet and Velvet fails to maintain contact, eyes falling down.

Finally, Velvet bows to Penny. "I very sorry." Velvet stands back up and tries again to hold eye contact with Penny. Penny nods, barely aware of her physical actions. Velvet walks off, leaving her alone.

Penny sat alone, at the table for a long time. Yatsuhashi walked by and put a book down on the table before walking away. Penny noticed the book and pulled it closer. Surprisingly, she was too stressed to read right, and incapable of reading the book cover as she tried to understand what had just occurred with Coco. Regardless, Penny opened the book and stared at the contents inside, not being able to read at all, she slowly leans closer to the book and digs her face into the pages.

She sat there until after the sun set and her internal alarm reminded her to go home. Penny nearly flew out of the Library. Not running, nearly flying. Never has she ran in fear. Never has she tried to push this hard forward off the streets, holding back only so she doesn't break the floor. Never has the inspiration for screaming been ever present, since she lacks breath. A hiccup stops her from indulging in the noise, and panic hides under her hair as she runs facedown. Silently, she ran.

Fear. The first pain that Penny ever feels.


	6. PoP: ch 6 - A Dusk – Part 1 of 4

PoP: ch 6 - A Dusk – Part 1 of 4

Penny sat in the middle of a room, in a chair, not listening as she was berated by a man pacing back and forth. She knows what he's saying already; irresponsibility, duty, failure of penance and nowhere to be found. Penny's heard this speech before, but never has it been directed to her. She was recording the words anyways.

He carried on and on, for so long that she could measure how much the shadows have moved before he finally asked for her for the usual information; the layouts of the city that she's explored today, what kind of people and Faunus populate the area. Penny explained using a map Mr. Ironwood brought along, pointing out certain locations when Mr. Ironwood asked which places would be most defensible, and she explained which buildings had the best fortifications or possibility for defenses.

So on and so forth, finally Penny was allowed to leave the disappointed scowl of Mr. Ironwood behind, who commented that her father would be pleased to hear from her, and he won't tell him about her running amok.

She walked outside of the estate and to the garden where her little hovel was hidden. The sun was high and the sky blue as Penny stared up before descending down inside.

Inside was the same as before, but the feeling was a little emptier. She didn't realize it was empty before. A lot of gray and shine, the tools had some color but not enough to be noticed. Penny stared at the room for a while before turning back up the stairs and leaving.

Outside, Penny walked aimlessly, avoiding The Plaza, feeling conflicted. She wasn't even completely sure why. What part of what Coco asked scares her? Why did it scare her?

Penny stops walking and stares at the place where she first met Ruby and her friends.

Why did she tell Ruby?

"Wow. You do look depressed." Penny turned around and saw Ruby standing nearby, watching her with her large eyes. "Salutations, Ruby!" replied Penny weakly. Ruby forced a smile, "I heard you could use a friend right now."

I could lie, thought Penny.

Hiccup.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow. I'm beat. I have another, like 10 more chapters written out but proofreading is hard, so i'll get back to it sometime later this week. I'll keep writing this stuff too, so please send me some kind of notice tolet me know I'm doing something right! Por favor.**


	7. PoP: ch 7 - A Dusk - Part 2 of 4

PoP: ch 7 - A Dusk – Part 2 of 4

"I didn't know what to do." Penny performs the human act of drawing circles with her foot. It helped make her emotionally distant. She didn't understand why.

Ruby stares at the sky thoughtfully, "Velvet's nice, she never would of asked you herself. Coco, though, waaay more upfront. She probably pushed you because she considered it a favor for Velvet, somehow." Penny frowns, "I don't understand." "I don't think Coco cares about you. Maybe. I think she asked so Velvet would know because Velvet wants to know." "Why didn't she ask me then?" Ruby looked away, thinking, "Velvet is just too polite to ask questions like that."

Penny faces Ruby, violating personal space for intensity, "Why would she want to know?" "Velvet… I think she comes from a family of doctors. She's seen a lot of injured people, probably a lot with fake limbs. So she learned how to listen for problems in the joints whne they come in for check-ups and then you came along and she could hear you. She probably was curious as to what happened to you to have that much metal inside of your limbs." "And she's too nice to ask me." Ruby smiles weakly, "Yeah."

Penny stood up straight again, "So she didn't think I was a robot?" Ruby shook her head, "She thinks you have a lot of intricate prosthetics on your body. And I don't think you're a robot. The APS are robots. Not you." "If I'm not a robot, then what am I?" "You're not JUST a robot." "I'm not?" Ruby laughs, "Nope, you don't know who you are, yet."

Penny's thought intensity shows in her expression shifting from mystified to angry, as she searches her memory banks for all the history she has access to, including the defining features that identified her as a synthetic android built for combat. "What do you mean I don't know what I am? I've had access to everything that resulted in my creation, how can I not know who I am?" "Yesterday I found out I don't like cheddar potato chips," replied a nonchalant Ruby.

Penny stood staring at Ruby, thoroughly mystified. Ruby looks encouragingly at Penny, "I don't know me. I'm learning." "I can't eat." "That's not the problem." "So what should I do?" "Start with everything." Penny steps away from Ruby, "I can't do everything, that's physically impossible!" "Do what you can then." "Like what?" "Everything except eating and swimming."

Penny tried to understand what Ruby was saying, but couldn't comprehend the implications or even what actions she was instructing Penny to take.

"I feel like Jerome now!" Ruby claimed, jumping forward. Penny watched Ruby for a moment, "Who is, Je-roam?" Ruby, full of energy, stepped away from the wall. "Oh, Jerome is a character in a book I read, Fox Hunting, that I read a long time ago, after Yang stopped reading me bedtime stories. He was this awesome fox Faunus that was hunting down these guys that caused trouble in a desert wasteland. . ."

Ruby then launched into a full explanation of a story, where Jerome began hunting down criminals after being unable to stop them from stealing his towns food supply. No one would help him because they needed to get more supplies, not chase down criminals, so he chased them down alone. But he was old and weathered, and eventually had to stop at a small town where a pair of twins took care of him. Jericho and Monica helped him because they were the town doctor's kids, and helping is what their family does. But one day, the town gets robbed by the same bandits and the old man tries to stop them, but is hurt badly, only able to chase them off. The kids try to care for him but he passes away. The bandits came again to take the city, but the children learned from the fox, and caught the bandits so the town law could punish them by hanging.

Penny wondered if Ruby wanted to be Jerome. And then she thought about who she was in the story, if Ruby was teaching her, then was she one of the twins? Was she both?


	8. PoP: ch 8 - A Dusk - Part 3 of 4

PoP: ch 8 - A Dusk – Part 3 of 4

Try something new. Penny didn't understand why, but apparently Ruby thinks she needs to try something new. Maybe a lot of new things. Penny had just woken up and was putting on her bow when she realized there was a book on the table. Penny doesn't remember checking a book out, than recalls she ran out of the library with this book. It had handprints where she nearly crushed it while she ran from the library. Uncertain of what to do, she decides to go turn the book in after combat training that day.

Penny exits the estate and travels over to the combat training arena, located inside Beacon Academy. Currently, there are no classes scheduled in the building, which is the only time Penny is allowed to practice combat. The amount of privacy here makes it possible to be as violent and loud as the situation demands. Ironwood stands in the observatory platform over the audience seating, watching quietly. Several technicians keep an eye and a transceiver was aimed at the area where Penny stood.

Penny stands still as outdated AK-200's surround her. Today there were 15 of them loaded with combat algorithms meant for the newer AP-290s. These tests were not meant to keep Penny in combat shape, it was to test how dexterous and many different combat protocols could be created under different circumstances, to increase the possible combat analysis Penny could put out; being able to recognize combat tactics and being able to respond to them isn't a one way direction, and sometimes the most efficient method isn't suitable for the situation. Penny considered all the times she has taken them down using all of her swords, the different methods used to damage them into submission from joint locking to just hacking and slashing them to bits from ranged combat. What could be different?

Penny took out one blade and held it in one hand, deciding on her own conditions: one sword; close range; destroy weapons only; blunt force; no augmentations.

Since they surrounded her, she would have to choose one and go for it. Since they're robots, they don't bother worrying about crossfire. Since their A.I.'s are third gen processers, they could possibly match her response times. Penny knew she would be hit, she only had to be sure she wasn't hit too hard, not lose her balance.

Ironwood, in the observing platform, threw his arm down, signaling the start. The AK-200s open fire on her immediately.

Penny leaps up, arcing her fall so she lands behind one AK in the audience stands. Careful not to destroy property, Penny runs along the curve and leaps over the seats, avoiding being shot and lands aside the first AK to be destroyed. One quick slash destroyed the units gun and dislodged its shoulder. It's other arm revealed a concealed blade, from out of the wrist. Penny broke the arm, hard, as bullets bounced off the APS's armor. Below its body, she was shielded from half the shooters. The length of her sword shielded her from the other half. Using both as a shield she charged through the crowd towards the furthest AK and power stomped it hard, crushing the gun and other elbow. Then Penny rotated and threw her shield AK into another AK before charging in the opposite direction.

Closing in with glancing shots, Penny bluntly crashes and carries the third AK, driving it as a battering ram into two other AK in succession, before dropping him and hammering the sixth's weapons away. The one that Penny threw the second AK at finally rose, and Penny performed a headcount, realizing there were still ten left and two of them are missing.

Penny attached a thread to her sword hilt and tosses it in a wide arc, the force carrying it far enough away to neatly slice through two AK guns and wrapping around a third. Penny pulled, hard. The AK came at her tumbling and Penny charges. Ducking, Penny catches the body by the hand and slingshots it back at the tenth APS that gets crushed between the wall and thrown AK.

Shots impact Penny from behind, she crouches forward and trots away, avoiding gunfire from two directions. The two missing AK have appeared at the top of the stands. Passing a downed AK, Penny grabbed the renaments of the gun and threw them at the closest AK, missing by a margin. The targeting system was disturbed, though, allowing for Penny to close in without getting shot.

Penny cut off the arm. She broke her rule. She grabs his body and throws him at the next AK, who almost avoids the impact and domino falls into the firing path of the last AK and gets shot down.

Using that, Penny charges the AK and breaks his arms without her weapon before bashing down it's face with the hilt of her sword. The last two stood over her in the stands, a distance away as Penny turns to them.

They shut down. Penny doesn't move, checking her internal clock. 76 seconds have passed since the start, she should have forty four seconds left.

Ironwood spoke through a P.A. "Penny, what was that?" "It was something different." "For what reason would you limit yourself?" Penny took a moment to gauge her response herself before speaking. "Precision and control." Ironwood was silent then, talking to the specialists behind him before returning. "Well, you've definitely demonstrated your current capacity for precision. If you wish to continue honing that particular asset, I wouldn't stop you. I would encourage you share what you plan to do though, so I'll plan accordingly for testing purposes."

"For now, please report to Dr. Barnes to check on your skin's integrity. For all your speed, the blank dust shells will be faster, and you've taken a bit of damage as well."

Penny reached up to touch her face, since she doesn't have sensors to indicate how the impacts affect her appearance. The skin under her eye was torn and hanging loosely, exposing her interior facial mechanics and jawline. She traced the mechanics that controlled her jaw that were now exposed, which shifted under her touch as her expression shifted.

Under Penny's own conditions, Penny failed.


	9. PoP: ch9 - A Dusk - Part 4 of 4

PoP: ch 9 – A Dusk – Part 4 of 4

Penny looked at herself in the beauty mirror. She stood, without clothing, in front of the mirror. She couldn't go outside that day, not after the amount of damage she sustained from the combat training today; not only was her face peeling off, there were cavities of bullet holes in her skin throughout her body. Not many, but enough that she can't go around in public until the synthetic skin can be repaired. Her face could easily be patched, but her legs couldn't, because the motion of walking would stretch the holes larger. Saggy skin will limit her mobility, not to mention it's unsightly to see amidst the humans. Her clothes won't hold the skin in place so Penny can't go outside.

So she was trapped in her room under the garden. With nothing to do. She's already checked her body for other injuries and only surface damage was apparent. Penny looks around her home, and there wasn't even a place to sit. She realizes that she has never sat down in this place since she first arrived eighty seven days ago. There wasn't even anything besides tools here. After analyzing the room for the seventh time, Penny recalls the book she nearly crushed. It's still here.

The Dragon and the Wind; that was the name of the book. It was a fantasy novel, medieval fantasy with mythical creatures and falsified history made for the story's sake. Just flipping through it reveals no mention of Faunus, so either it's unspecific to racial cultures or it ignores them entirely. Penny almost put it away but didn't have anywhere to put it except on the table where she found it. Placing the book down, Penny stares at it, growing more uneasy the longer she saw the book sitting there. Finally, she picked it up and opened the pages.

Secilia was a young girl, of marrying age at last in small community. Normally girls find a man to marry during the festival that is upcoming in a few days, but Secilia can't bring herself to really care about marriage, having been an orphan that survived a bandit raid many years ago. She pretends to gawk and lust over the glorious men of her town, but she doesn't really care. Until the lord of the lands, Jericho, arrives at her town, traveling back home himself. Strangers told her to beware of him and his glory, but she was sought after by him, and courted to be wedded.

Secilia accepts, and was whisked away to the Jericho's castle and trained to be a handmaiden, to learn the formalities before becoming the lords own blushing bride. And yet, during the course of her stay, Secilia encountered the man's Naomi, a woman known as a cold and ruthless general for the ongoing wars and battles she waged with ferocity and a heart of stone. She was polite, but displeased with her brother's chosen bride, but left Secilia be, warning her that even if she weds her brother, the main shrine is off limits still, even to the lord's wedded wife.

Curiosity ate away at the young Secilia and so, one night, she snuck away and broke into the shrine. And within, she found the priest of the Dragon and the third lord of the castle, Shaota, hidden away by Jerome and Naomi lords for shame because of Shaota's pacifist nature and eccentric interests. Secilia offered to free him, certain that he would desire it. Shaota declines though, comfortable in his cave and singular duty in guarding a cursed blade with unknown origin.

Penny didn't finish. She couldn't finish. The book disturbed her. It disturbed her and she didn't know why. She put the book down and stepped away. Eager to get away, she looked for something to do, because she still couldn't go outside. But there was nothing inside her room.

Penny haphazardly pulled her seams and plugged herself in to sleep.


	10. PoP: 10 - Some Repairs

PoP: ch 10 – Some repairs

Mr. Bernard applied the last of the adhesive to Penny's skin, sealing her face back together again. Penny felt the texture of the skin, noting that it's smoother than before. "it's getting smoother, Mr. Bernard." "Yes, it is isn't it?" he replied in a raspy voice, "I'm honestly surprised that I've managed to progress skin grafts this far. I must admit when Ironwood brought me in, I was expecting some kind of rushed mass production skin for medical purposes, not for a synthetic like yourself." "A synthetic like me," she repeated, thoughtfully.

Mr. Bernard stopped working and watches her think. "Penny, I might just be here to fix up your body, but I can tell something is bothering you. It shows on the skin." "It does?" "Of course it does. You're far more human than people are willing to admit, and it shows on the skin." Mr. Bernard pulls Penny's hand palm up. Pointing at the indentations, he continues, "you've been tense, lately. Very tense, for these marks to linger." Mr. Bernard stands up and places his hand on her forehead, gently, "I can see it and feel it because I know your skin. But I don't know why."

Penny looks up at Mr. Bernard, and doesn't tell him. She neglects to respond, and he takes that as an answer, "Don't worry Penny, you said you made friends, and while Ironwood doesn't like that fact, I believe it's a good thing for you to have. "

Penny smiles at him, trying to comfort him to not worry about her. He departs, finished with his work. Alone, Penny puts her clothes back on and leaves as well. Mr. Ironwood was outside, talking to Mr. Bernard. Without speaking, Ironwood nods to Penny giving her permission to leave.


	11. Ch 11 - Out again

PoP: ch 11 – Out again

Outside again, patched up skin and ready to continue observing the people, Penny took to the streets. She walks west, towards the port district that day. It's a working district, nobody walks around leisurely and if they do, they walk towards the more lively shopping district. Large shipping crates rested in warehouse areas, and stacked in more open areas for merchants and their ilk to access. The workers were all laborers, and men outnumbered women by a vast number, enough for Penny to recognize the fact she stood out as small as her frame is. Another thing Penny noticed is that there is a large amount of Faunus laborers as opposed to human, and management seemed to be humans for the most part.

Penny got a few funny looks from various workers, possibly due to her attire or her youth. A homeless man even called out to her, laughing about something to do with her safety, but Penny was certain she would be able to defend herself from any such trouble. Yet, eventually, her notices someone was following her, a stout individual in a deep brown trench coat and some kind of bowled hat. The individual just watches Penny continue to wander around. Penny recalls the mapping of the area and recalls a deadend and walks herself into a small alley. The individual didn't confront her.

Penny, after nearly four hours of walking, decides to leave, the stalker follows her to the border and vanishes. Regardless, Penny continues to walk on, uncertain if others might be watching or not. Once she reaches the residential area she lives in, Penny follows the normal path of habit, heading straight into the backyard and into her room. Penny felt at ease as she descended the stairs, and seizes up upon sighting the bound collection of pages on the table, the one she cast aside last night in more baseless unnerving fear.

Penny departs. Penny walks away from her room, uncertain and unwilling to return home yet. Unable to do anything more, Penny returns to the Port District, planning to investigate more. The individual that followed her earlier that day most likely have malicious intent, or at the least, ill will. She's certain about this, as the only reason to stalk anyone to the edge of a city District in the middle of the day is because that individual is a concern. Penny did nothing more than walk around, she did nothing illegal. Yet someone stalked her, so Penny was certain in something nefarious being conducted in the port district. .

Penny glanced at the sky once, realizing this is the first time she's seen the moon and stars alone since her creation. A breath, one she knew immediately was false, emitted from her lips. She stepped forward.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I know I've just started posting this story up, and am working on catching up on the story, but with school just around the corner, I'll either slow down writing or be forced to write sporadically when I get fed up with my classes. University work is fun when combined with a job. So I'll keep mass posting until I catch up to where I am in the story before the school semester starts. I hope I manage to keep writing this, because I'm planning for this story to have awfully heartfelt things in it. And a kiss. Hehehehehhehehe. Also, PLEASE REVIEW, SOMEONE. I LOVE REVIEWS. Granted, I'm not taking suggestions since I already know how my story is going to be played out, but I love criticism of any kind, even if it's just a "wtf" comment because I like knowing people's reactions to what I'm putting out. Don't worry about hurting my feelings, there's a delete button for that. So until the next update, I wish you all well!**


	12. Chapter 12 - Out again cont

PoP: ch 12 – Out again [cont.]

Night is strange. Penny could identify each and every source, but she felt oppressed under the moon. She could see perfectly well, having eyes built for high and low visibility situations, plus keen senses as well. But the dark was unsettling for unknown reasons, reasons beyond her understanding. Knowing that she didn't understand unsettles her more, and she refuses to dwell on those facts.

Penny forces herself to focus on the speculation that something is going on in the Port District. She was followed when she was in the northern quadrant of the district, so that would be the place to start looking for possible trouble. It was noticeably quieter as she walked on, her footsteps echoing off the pavement and shuffling the graveled pathways.

Penny tried walking slower and more cautiously, but her body couldn't be quieter in the environment, her boots were weighted down to help hold her strength back, her legs down, and the combined weight presses down on the unstable gravel too much that she sank. Penny knew her limbs, which are lubricated to avoid any kind of grinding noise, and further muffled by the layers of synthetic skin, are audible still to acute senses, as proven by Velvet the rabbit faunus.

Eventually, Penny reached the location where she first noticed she was being watched. Noting the location, Penny continues in a direction she didn't walk before, trending new territory. Her sensors were less effective at night, Penny realized, as simple sounds could nearly overwhelm them, since sounds were amplified in the silence.

She chases down sounds by sounds, finding drunken buddies singing or workers still laboring in the dark, those of which Penny ignores because her interest is the ones patrolling this area. And yet, Penny felt something off, having caught herself walking in the wrong direction twice now. Before long, Penny realized she was going backwards. A quick scan of the environment confirmed her location, but no understanding of how she was turned around. Turning around, Penny tried to continue the same path, only to realize now she's walking in another direction, to the left of where she intended to go. Penny ignored the data from her eyes. And then she felt it, so smooth and undetectable she almost missed the floor rotating slowly under her feet. So Penny opens her eyes and stomps, shattering the illusion.

Silence passes, as Penny prepares herself for assault. Then the coated individual was standing in front of her, appearing from thin air. Then Penny's sight indicated she was being pulled further away. Then Penny realized her mistake. A foot skips hard against Penny's face, throwing her off balance as the small individual curls up and leaps out, bashing Penny's abs. Thankfully, Penny doesn't have a human's sense of pain or else she'd be heavily disoriented. She was still off balance though, and in the split second it took for Penny to analyze what hit her, the individual was gone again. Penny's eyes were useless apparently. There was nothing unusual admist the sounds to suggest anything had been there a moment ago. Penny doesn't have a sense of touch to gauge vibrations, so that left only reacting and predicting.

No sooner had she had the thought as a sword cleaves through her waist from behind, slashing through her clothing. Penny slaps at the possible direction of the drawback and successfully presses the blade against her own hip further driving the edge in. Eventually the blade snaps in the split second it was there, a testament to how heavy handed Penny was with the motion. It was also a testament to the frailty of the blade, not meant for heavy combat, meaning this combatant would have other skills beyond blade work.

The individual stood, hiding their face as they check the broken weapon. Penny draws out her blades, all bound to her by wires. The individual flicks their wrist and a light reflects off nothing. Penny pulls her blades back and prepares for an attack. Then Penny's blades all pierced the buildings around her and were stuck.

Her assailant charges, broken hilt in hand and slices upwards. Penny dodges by rolling back but her arm is cut open. Something transparent shatters and Penny sees the illusion as mirros and glass for the first time, formed by a semblance of sorts.

Penny, in a rush, rips out one sword from the building and swings it at the individual. The blade misses, the individual sidesteps. The Individual also swips at the hilt of Penny's blade, chancing upon the wire. Penny lost a blade unless she manually recovers it.

Gone. One of her swords is gone.

Penny rips another two out of the walls around her, proceeds to bring the forth blade to her hand for personal use. Slightly alarmed is an adept description, she realizes as her assailant smirks and curtsies with the broken sword to Penny in challenge.


	13. Chapter 13 - Out again cont

PoP: ch 13 – Out again [end]

Penny's losing. Penny is losing and she's not going to win this fight. She lost six of her blades and has been damaged on the hips, the arm and numberous lacerations litter her legs and wrists. It's a blessing the illusionist's blade wasn't sharp enough to break metal. A quick slap on the wrists has disarms Penny once again, and a sharp kick to her opposing knee has made Penny buckle down. Penny couldn't avoid the speed of the assailent's clearly practiced skills, and the assailant's blade length couldn't be seen by Penny, forcing her to avoid the direction of the hilt at all times. The assailant continues to spiral around Penny, avoiding all attempts of Penny's extended blades to strike down a single individual with almost contempt ease, even lazily slicing another blade away from Penny's control. Eight gone now.

Finally, the assailant stepped back and allows Penny to regain her footing, some measure of poise. Penny takes the moment to truly take stock of her body: The tear in her hip was growing, it'll soon be a hindrance for Penny's mobility; her legs are protected in plating, so her joints are not going to suffer; one hand was more difficult to close; her eye might be misaligned from an earlier impact. Penny raised herself up, regardless, preparing to face her foe again with one sword in hand, and four blades hovering behind her. Her last blades. .

Penny held the blade in hand up, focused upon her enemy now, certain in a victory. The assailant notices and in almost mocking jesture, hops on each foot, enough for a sense of rythme before suddenly charging head on. Penny aims a horizontal slash with her body open, with her back swords aiming to slash down over her. A glass shield appeared, hard enough to stop her mid swing, suddenly, leaving Penny wide open to attack. . The other blades continued downwards, deflected by an unseen force. The enemy's sword came straight at Penny's neck, and it pierces through almost an inch before snapping into two. Dropping the blocked blade, Penny grabbed her opponent by the throat, picked her up and bashed them into the pavement, hard. Twice for good measure.

Penny, with her other hand, pulled and broke the glass shards still in her throat, "You're mine now." Penny finally got a good look at her opponent, in the dark. She had a silver eye, her other was brown. Her hair apparently matched. Then Penny's head was hammered with a bullet.

The sound was deafening, and another shot was fired as Penny stumbled away, no longer holding her foe. She barely held onto her swords, the impact was so jarring to her head. Penny barely saw her new opponent before another bullet hammered her in the face. The shooter was a member of the White Fang, armed with a sniper rifle nearly two blocks away. Criminal known only by identity, not name, crawls upright, coughing violently, and stamps on the floor repeatedly with her free hand, whether it meant "Again! Again!" or "Harder! Harder!" was debatable.

Then Penny realized her power was running low. Her aura, the force that aided all living things in generating personal shields against harm, was about to run dry. Retreat. That was the only plan. Penny merely turns when suddenly fire engulfs her without touching her. Penny ignores it and charges anyways through the flames anyways. "She's running away!" shouts a woman, and more gunfire chases after Penny.

Using her remaining blades, Penny climbs over the rooftops and flees for the nearest public access zone. At the rate she's running, Penny has adequate power to reach the area, unless she begins fighting again.

Gun fire hails after her for a moment before ceasing. Penny eventually spots an outdated AP-200 patrolling one rooftop, and changes direction. Grabbing the machine by the shoulders, she shouts, "Gepetto Asset Override! Beacon Support!" Penny realizes how troubled she was after that outburst. The machine whirred to life and prepared for combat, drawing its weapon and standing ready. More units quickly joins them on the rooftop, but no one gave chase.

Penny almost fell, her knee components have collapsed from leaping to rooftops. Taking a subconscious deep breath, she instgructed, "Gepettos, evac me home," she commanded. Penny couldn't stand then, and one of the knights picks her up across it's body. It struggles for a moment, and doesn't leap, but rather falls down to the street and runs with her, the other Atlesian Knights escorted her home. To safety.


	14. Chapter 14 - More repairs

PoP: ch 14 – More repairs

Penny sat at home, trying to ignore the pacing individual, stripped of her clothing and the skin of her leg carved off to access the inner workings of her knees. Mr. Bernard tutted as he examined the damaged skin, "Your opponent's sword wasn't that sharp or sturdy. It was much sharper after you broke it."

Ironwood stops pacing.

"After it broke?" "After my opponent broke her blade against me, she used some kind of semblance to recreate a new blade," explained Penny. Iron looks up thoughtfully, "a transparent illusion, and a transparent semblance… It has to be the same girl that aided the vandals that destroyed the abandoned waystation." "Yes sir," acknowledged Penny, recalling the train wreck under Central Park as her leg popped and reconnects. "Well, that should work. We're going to have to get new parts to replace the leg, but it should be fine for casual walking for now."

Penny tests her leg, and stands up. Ironwood watches quietly. "You're not at 100% and while I trust, Bernard's judgement, I'm putting all combat simulations on hold until your repairs are complete." Penny sulks. "Until then, keep to your bedroom and the estate." Penny nods, accepting. Ironwood walks to the center of Penny's room and activates the staircase lift system. Mr. Bernard coughs, subtly, Ironwood glances at him for a moment before speaking, "I believe you did the right thing, trying to find those brigands. Next time, remember to notify us so we can respond appropriately. Right now, I'll see what our Huntsmen have found out about the crime scene." Ironwood began ascending the stairs. Mr. Bernard coughs again. "Oh, I suppose it'll be fine if you still went to the Park and local area, it should be safe enough for you to transverse."

Mr. Ironwood makes his exit.

Mr. Bernard sighs and turns to Penny. "Please don't do anything like this again." Penny nods, in agreement; knowing a hostile situation is possibly, backup and reinforcements are necessary precautions. Mr. Bernard wraps bandages around Penny's neck, silent. Penny glances around, looking for wherethe book had been place. Spotting it next to her bed, Penny stares at it, uncertain about her feelings concerning the bound book now. Unnamed fear remains present, but time has dulled it down.

"You're trying too hard, lately. Is something the matter?" Penny looks at Mr. Bernard, who works diligently on patching what skin he could on Penny's hip. "I'm," began Penny, "uncertain of what I'm supposed to do." "Really?" "I have my mission, and I understand there will be problems of methods and means to do those missions, and that I have been created for such purposes. For everyone's sake, I've made sure I'm combat ready for all those missions, I want everyone's efforts to succeed, but what am I supposed to be ready for? I don't understand what I was fighting for last night." Penny stares at the top of Mr. Bernard's greying head, waiting for a response.

Mr. Bernard stands over Penny, sighing. "… How old are you, Penny?" "Two hundred and forty... seven days since I first activated." "And do you know how old am I?" Penny examines Mr. Bernard, head tilted as she recalls the data records, "Thirty seven years, four months and eighteen days old." Mr. Bernard cringes, slightly, but resumes, "Do you think I know why I do what I do?" "Yes." "Heh, and why do I know what I do?" Penny remains silent, unable to answer the question, "I know what I do because I have done it. And one day, you'll know why you do it when you do what you do best with others too." "What was it that you did, Mr. Bernard?" "I'm a doctor, Penny. I learned how to heal people." Penny contemplates, "I learned how to fight people." "Why?" A second passes before Penny realizes what bothers her. "… I don't know." Mr. Bernard nods sagely, "Let me know when you find out." Penny nods, thinking hard.

Mr. Bernard leaves without saying good bye, and Penny sits in silence for an hour, trying to recall any reasons given to her to fight. None were found, no reasons have ever been given and she's never once questioned her fathers. Penny starts to stare at the book again and picks it up again, staring at the cover of a woman and a grey land.

Penny opens the book with stiff hands.


	15. Chapter 15 - Extra pages

PoP: ch 15 – Extra Pages [Interlude]

The girl, Secilia, leaves the imprisoned lord, Shaota in his cage. Yet, even as chained as he was, he still found ways to meet her outside, in the bodies of animals local to the castle; mice, bird, bees, cats, whatever they be he could hold their body as his own and he would visit Secilia.

She continued her training as a handmaiden, preparing for the day she was to be wedded to the lord Jerome. Secilia wondered why the lord was interested in her, especially since he could not visit her often enough to truly be interested in her. And when she was with the lord, he saw her as someone else, perhaps another woman from another lifetime. Jerome wouldn't tell Saya who he thought of, and even he denied thinking of anyone claiming she was the one but Secilia knew he was lying.

Naomi assaults Secilia one day, and has revealed to learning about Secilia's and Shaota's game playing at night. So, while Jerome is away, Naomi decides to arrange an execution. Helplessly caught, Secilia is caged and suspended in the castle court for all until the day of her execution arrives.

And yet, Shaota, the imprisoned boy that has never seen the light of day, who has lived an eternity of lives in a cage of his own violation, rises with the cursed blade with no name, and savages the castle grounds with a cursed power of fire and liquid flames. And he burns his way to the cage where Secilia waits, and cuts all things around her with a flash of a blade.

The castle burned down to the ground, in fire that neither could be stopped or contained until it reached the castles edges. By the time the fire stopped, by the time people could be saved from the fire that would not burn flesh, Shaota and Secilia both had long since left.

Penny stopped here, uncertain if she should continue for the time being, and went to put herself to sleep. She wonders, as she holds the wire to plug herself in, why the story exhausts herself so.


	16. Chapter 16 - Shopping Plans

PoP: ch 16 – Shopping Plans

The next morning, Penny awoke, uncomfortable. She unplugs herself and rises, almost performing her morning habits. She can't bathe because of her patched skin and exposed electronics, but the examination from the previous day proved that her injuries only appear serious; they weren't any trouble for Penny herself, so she was clear to leave the home.

Penny brushes her hair and puts on a secondary outfit. It appears similar to her original, but with pants and an empty holster. Penny drew a sword and configured it into a gun and holstered it. Penny looks at the mirror of herself and realizes that her skirt is gone. Penny's never been skirtless before. She's always worn pants, but always with a top that reached low enough to be called a skirt.

Penny moves around a bit, noting how she looks without a skirt. Her bandaged neck and hand would draw attention, but it wasn't a problem for functionality. Penny leaves.

Outside, Penny proceeds to Central Park, planning to observe the shops and vendors. Along the way, she spots Team CVFY at the coffee shop. Penny and velvet cross eyes, but neither move towards each other as Penny continues on.

Little obstructed her on her path, as new checkpoints barred the way into the populated shopping streets. Penny waited in line with other people as everyone was registered and bags searched upon entry. When Penny arrived, with her bladed gun holstered, the guard was taken aback from her bandaged neck. She offered the guard a passport which he examined. Inside documented her status in the Atlas military's technologic division. The guard waves her in, and some people in the crowd complain and jeer at her walking in openly armed. Penny leaves the guard to explain and reestablish order as she enters the street.

The vast number of shops and competing vendors created a colorful scene as people milled about their business. Parents and kids, teens, individuals, even a tilted drunk walked joyously singing down the street. Penny wandered for a while, marveling at the differences between individuals, ranging from hair to fashion to physical appearance. Even skin tone varies. Penny considers if she would look different if her artificial skin pigment was darker. Then she realizes she could be solid shades of blue or green, and dismisses the thought, slightly distressed.

Continuing on, Penny sees a crowd gathering at one street corner, where someone with a sign hovering over everyone's heads; an activist of some sorts. Penny goes over to see and hear what this individual was arguing.

"-was caused by faunus looking to destroy our city! For years, we've had a long earned peace, but the faunus have always desired dominance, it's part of their nature!" Someone cut the activist off, "It's the White Fang, ya dope! Not all the Faunus, just the White Fang!" "The White Fang was created for the sake of Faunus and the Faunus has turned it into a criminal organization! The past few months have been riddled with crime and robberies not of money, but of weapons and ammunition! All by White Fang members!"

Penny noticed two people fighting in the crowd, and realized it was faunus friend Blake and friend Yang. Blake was trying to go back into the crowd muttering and Yang was arguing back until Blake turned around and stormed away, Yang following. Penny glances at the activist, and follows Yang and Blake.

Suddenly Blake screams into the air, furiously ridiculing the activist. Penny didn't pay much attention to the words as Blake stomps and turns at Yang demanding compliance. "He's not right. Everyone knows that that's why the crowd was arguing with him," replied Yang, Blake hyperventilated,"How do they know?!" "Those were humans arguing with him." Blake, unblinking and through gritted teeth, hisses "Stupid activist spreading manure!" Yang grimaces, but speaks upbeat, "Only natural, big catastrophe with the White Fang flag behind it." "Especially if charlatans like him," Blake pointed the way they came, where Penny stood, "keep pushing for more violence!"

Penny interrupts, "Did I come at a bad time?"

Blake and Yang jump away. "Penny!? Where'd you come from?!" "Are you discussing the racist human?" inquired Penny. Blake seethes, "Yes, he's spreading rumors based only on judgmental facts, not the whole story." Yang slowly grows more shocked. "Well we'll just tell the truth then, right?" Blake snarks, "There's a lot of people spreading these rumors, and people's fear of bad guys makes it easy to believe White Fang is the problem."

"Penny, are you hurt?" Blake pacing and examines Penny herself. Penny has bandage wraps around her neck. A few other bandages wrap the back of her hand and a wrap around her leg bulges under her clothes. Penny shifts her weight back and forth, "I'm hurt but not too badly. I can still move around." Yang points to each bandage, "Your knee is wrapped, so you shouldn't be able to support yourself without a crutch. Your hand is wrapped extending to under your sleeves so it should be in a sling, and your neck is thin. Your neck is THIN. What happened?"

Befuddled, Penny tries to come up with an answer while Weiss and Ruby walk up.


	17. Chapter 17 - Shopping Plans cont

PoP: ch 17 – Shopping Plans [cont.]

"So why a potted plant?" "For atmosphere." "I still don't think that's something to worry about, since we're going to spend so much time away from our rooms," Weiss scoffs. "Oh, princess, you have much to learn," commented a skipping Ruby. "Do- Don't use that tone with me! Explain!" Ruby tugs on Zwei's leash so he could stop. He spun around and trotted in circles next to her.

"We decorated the dorm all we wanted, but we don't really have anything to care for. I think having some plants would be beneficial for us in the sense that we'll come back and see progress." Weiss stares absently, lost in thought. "Okay, I still don't get it but fine. I'll support getting a potted plant." "It's your leader's order! You couldn't deny even if you wanted to." Weiss rolls her eyes , "Fine." Ruby looks ahead and see's Blake and Yang arguing.

"Something's happened," notes Ruby. Weiss notices Blake and Yang, and together with Zwei leading the way march towards their friends. Suddenly Penny appears and interrupts before they arrive. Observing, Penny seemingly trashes their serious conversation in her normal oblivious manner so they quicken their pace.

"- sling, and your neck is thin. Your neck is THIN. What happened?"

Up close, Ruby realizes what Yang is talking about, the slight bulge in her knee, a bandaged arm and her wrapped neck. "Hey team! Hi Penny! You guys finish your shopping already?" Blake scoffs, "Stupid human was stirring up trouble." Weiss perked up, "What do you mean?" Yang intervened, "Some activist is advocating that all the faunus are responsible for the train crashing into the park over there." Weiss clicks through her teeth, "more problems then."

While everyone talked Ruby snuck up to Penny and told her quickly, "I haven't told them. You can tell them." Penny considers the consequences, of having so many people knowing, and tries to figure out why she told Ruby yet again. Penny feels that she should trust Ruby and tell them as well though.

"I'm not too badly hurt, actually." Everyone turns back towards Penny, having nearly forgotten her in a moment. "Then why so many bandages," asks Yang, concern carries across everyone's face, even Weiss as she realizes the extent of the bandages. Penny shakes her head, "They're not for injuries, they're just to hold my skin together and keep me from being exposed." No one reacts, Ruby taps Penny's arm and Penny lifts it, unwrapping the bandages. Weiss leans back a little, scared, as Blake and Yang lean closer, curious.

Her hand, exposed, has a cut from the second digit to the middle of her forearm. Another slice goes lateral, which lets the skin below the second digit peel open slightly. Penny gently prys it open so the outer casing of her arm was exposed for the girls to see. Blake tenses up, Yang leans back and Weiss gets closer. Penny quickly wraps her arm back up again and pulls her sleeve down. Blake gently asks for consent from Penny, who offers her arm and Blake holds on with her full attention focused on Penny moving her arm back and forth. Blake lets go rather suddenly, shock across her face as she steps back. Yang resists moving as Weiss stares inexplicably at Penny's arm, and shifts to her face.

"So, uh, You're not a… human?" Yang asks, her nerves audible. Penny points at the girls as she speaks to Ruby, "See? That's a normal reaction, that's not what you did at all." Ruby shrugs, "Hold on, how long have you known this?" demands Weiss. "Uh, um…" Ruby cowers, "Since the day we fought Torchwick's EXO suit." "That's two months ago!" exclaims Weiss. Blake covers her ears with her hands and slowly curls up, counting something. Yang talks while pointing with a finger, "Can you, like, take off your face? Is your hair real?" Penny shakes her head, "I can't take off my face, and my hair is a wig of real hair attached to my scalp plating." "How many are like you?!" shouts Blake, looking very unnerved as she grabs Penny shoulders, "How many?" Penny attempts to iterate as Blake shakes her, "I'm- I'm the world's first- humanoid android- capable of producing an aura." Blake stops, "Are there any real robots like you?" Penny tries to understand the question, "Do you mean self-aware?" Blake nods. "No, not that I'm aware. I don't think they want to make many of androids like me," explains Penny. Blake relaxes slightly, still panicking. Weiss is pacing back and forth, lost in thought and chewing on her nails before shouting out, "Damn it, Winter!"

Weiss storms off, "I need to make a call," is her parting words as she gets too far away to hear. Blake looks from Weiss to Penny and chases after Weiss. Ruby stands stunned at her teammates reactions, "uh, guys? You're gonna, um, gonna hurt Penny's feelings." Penny shakes her head, "No, this is what is supposed to be normal. You're the weird one Ruby." "Am I?" asks a surprised Ruby. Yang, who hasn't moved since her first question, steps closer to Penny. Her two hands cup Penny's face, thumbs under the eyes and fingers extend to the back of her head.

"Are we going to see your real face?" Yang inquires. Penny pauses before speaking "My face was specifically constructed for my personal appearance," replied Penny. Yang's hands drop, "So this is really your face?" Penny nods. Yang's hands drop, "Okay, that's good to know."

"So… uh, Yang, what was the question again?" Yang, bewildered, glances around, "My… question, uh," "How did I get hurt?" supplies Penny. "Yeah! Yeah, that was my… question," Yang chuckled nervously.

Penny contemplates what she could say without violating Ironwood's protocols, "I… was looking around the ports for suspicious activities when I was attacked and overwhelmed by a single individual. Then more showed up and I escaped." Yang vaguely gestures at her neck, "Oh, I let myself get stabbed so I could gain the upper hand." Yang grimaces and nods, "Yeah, that would give you an element of surprise for sure. "

"Could you tell who it was," inquires Ruby. Penny nods, "Given my opponents small, petite frame, light refraction semblence, a high degree of technical skill and prowess coupled with an almost mocking combat methods leads us to believe that it's the same individual Yang reported to have defeated her on the train." Yang breathes deeply, tension rising, "So, she's still around and kicking, did you identify anyone else?" Penny shakes her head, "Nothing beyond a ranged shooter, someone capable of manipulating fire, and a strong broad individual." Ruby poses, "Not enough to go on for an investigation to be made for them.

Penny decides to mimic Ruby as she flamboyantly monologues. "So," began Ruby, "given that the enemy has not only survived their kamikaze attack and Torchwick has been imprisoned it's become apparent that they and their allies are still continuing their nefarious plans and deeds to possibly overtake the city and establish a new world order in secret requiring another series of investigations and intervention as the new heroes of Vale."

Yang laughs, "Alright! I'm up for another round of madness." Ruby shoves her finger inYang's face, "BUT THIS TIME, we shall improve our powers and numbers by bring in allies of our own! We must summon JNPR and CFVY!" Penny stops at the mention of Team CFVY. "we'll even summon up my old friends to keep their eyes on the ground and even drag Sun and Neptune's team into this operation!" "Sound's like a party. Think we could convince Sun and Neptune?" asks Yang. Ruby scoffs, "They're dating into our team, they have to help."

Yang looks up to Penny, "So, are you gonna help us too?" Penny resumes motion and nods. "It's a date then!"


	18. Chapter 18 - Dropping Eaves

PoP: ch 18 – Dropping Eaves

A boy wrapped in a cloak sat on the side of a fire escape, listening with an ear piece directed towards the alley entrance where Ruby, Yang and Penny rested. He suppressed his amusement when Penny mimicked Ruby, and suddenly flinched as Ruby mentioned him and his friends.

Ruby's explanation about evil ongoing's and her involvement stun the boy. But eventually the trio leave, wondering where their two partners went.

The boy sits for a moment, wondering what this meant for him and his friends. So he takes out a cellphone and dials. Two rings later, the other one answered.

"Farmboy, she's said something interesting." "That's not my name, Onyx." "No, you're right, it's a nickname." "So, what is it she said, did she finally confess her feelings for me?" Onyx shakes his head, "She was involved in the crazy train stuff in Central Park." "Oh?" the voice peaks with interest, "Hayden, she says she's gonna call us to help with more crazy action stuff." A pause, "Should I tell Jem?" "Call her." "Ugh, you know she hates me," "She likes you," "Shut up, stalker." Onyx takes a deep breathe to prevent from shouting back.

The other line hangs up and Onyx puts his phone away. He pulls down his hood and reveals large mousey round ears, and short bristled hair that juts out as he shivers. Keeping low, Onyx runs and jumps from one building to another as he travels west.

Penny stands in an alley entrance and watches him leap from building to building, watching the boy.

 **AUTHORS NOTE: Woah, I'm falling behind here! While it looks like I'm writing a lot and publishing all at once, I'm actually going over my story again as I'm writing it. I'm actually only on chapter 26 so when I finally catch up I'm going to be very sporadic about putting new chapters up. Especially when classes start up again. It's odd to think that I only started this a few months ago, a month after the volume 2 ended. Hope you ladies and gentlemen are enjoying this!**


	19. Chapter 19

PoP: ch 19 – Dropping Eaves [cont.]

Penny walks on, aware of the stranger that followed them and wondering if they overheard her secret, watches to see if it was someone she could recognize from criminal databases, having uploaded them over the past couple weeks. The cloaked person leapt from one rooftop to another, nimbly. Small and nimble, Penny decides to follow him. She runs to keep up, easily avoiding pedestrians in her path as the person traveled in a straight line.

After chasing him for only a block, the individual climbed down using the fire escape as steps to fall down to the floor. Before he exited into a crowded street, Penny grabs the boy, realizing his youth as she picks him up.

"Waaaah!" he shouted in shock. Penny held up his flailing body with one hand, waiting patiently. The boy continued to flail until he roundhouse kicked inside Penny's elbow, forcing her to bend. "Hey, Let go of me!" Her grip didn't loosen, however, since she doesn't have pain receptors. Penny just noted how strong the kick was.

Not wanting to sustain more damage than she has already, Penny spoke, "Can you stop? I'm already hurt a lot." The boy doesn't stop, however. "You're gonna regret it! I swear upon the five shadows of soldiers sorrow I'll beat you down and leave laughing! Let go of me!" Penny frowns, not understanding the reference, but the boy continues to struggle so Penny reinforces her grip and begins to helicopter swing the boy around. "I. Said. Stop. Struggling!" The boy starts crying out again, and people begin to notice on the street. "Make it stop make it stop!" Penny stops and holds him up face to face. "Eavesdropping is bad," retorted Penny, "Are you bad?" Onyx whimpers, "No…" "Good, now don't run away," Penny puts him down.

Onyx steps back but doesn't run away, too intimidated to speak first. Penny gives her arm a quick glance before speaking, "Good kick, you're a student, right?" Penny notices the emblem on his shirt under the cloak, "Oh, Signal Academy?" The boy, Onyx, recovers some courage, "Yes, I am." Penny tilts her head, "Do you know who I am?" Onyx shook his head vigorously. "So you know who team RWBY is?" Onyx nods, slowly. Penny leans in, Onyx doesn't look at Penny, sweating now. "Okay!" stated Penny, pointedly.

Onyx steps away, Penny doesn't respond, and Onyx runs for it. Penny takes out her sword-gun and fires a single shot. It hammers Onyx's back and he tumbles as the noise echoes away. Penny walks over a few steps to catch up and crouches over him. "You're not good at taking hits are yo-" Onyx flips and spins a kick into Penny's bent knees and she tumbles from gravity and inertia. Onyx quickly stands up and chases the wind away, Penny stands up in time to watch Onyx to crawl/climb against the wall up two stories to the higher rooftop.

Penny watches, slightly dumbfounded, but leaps once and achieves the same ending; she lands on the rooftop and runs after Onyx, who continues to leap from building to building without hindrance. Penny follows, grabbing her gun and shifting it into a blade form. After her semblance infused wires attaches, Penny stops and aims, then throws.

Onyx, almost three rooftops away, leaps to a fourth. Upon touching the floor, Penny's sword came down, edge out, hammering Onyx's shoulder and pinning him against the rooftop edge. Penny heard him scream as she skips buildings over to him.

Penny crouches over him again as Onyx realizes the blade didn't split his ribcage open, hyperventilating. He doesn't look up as he speaks, "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!" Penny ignored the question. "Your semblance is some form of environmental sensitivity, and some immediate control over it, depending on your proximity to what you want to effect." Onyx's eyes shoot up at Penny. "How'd you figure that out!?" "The wall is porous, no digging marks or excessive noise made while you climbed," Penny pointed at the ground around Onyx, "And no shadow, but you knew immediately when I was here, talking before I stepped here."

Dumbfounded, Onyx crawls out from under the blade, cowering. "Woah… waoh woah woah okay yes I was following Ruby! I follow people all the time! I haven't seen her in a long time and her letters are kinda vague so I don't pass up a chance to follow her!" Penny stares at Onyx. "Honest," he cries out. "Are you her friend?" Onyx whimpers, "Yes?" Penny reaches out for him and he cries out "DON'T HURT ME!"


	20. Chapter 20

PoP: ch 20 – Pots

Ruby was supervising her uncooperatively teammate shop. Weiss glances back at Ruby, with disbelief. "Don't dwaddle! Buy a plant then we go home!" Weiss stares at the rows of plants, a mission that seemed minor just turned irrelevant and no one will let her go now. "this is pointless," she gritted. Ruby stayed over her, knowing what Weiss was thinking.

"Teammate! How can you expect to operate on the field if one event sends you off focus? There will be hundreds of things that might defeat you!" Ruby was speaking at a casual volume, but Weiss obviously thought Ruby was too loud, and spoke in a hushed tones. "Dammit Ruby, this mission of yours was a farce from the beginning and now, with what Penny told me, is completely irrelevant since I have to confirm that it's actually possible!" "Finish first, than talk to family," quipped Ruby proudly. Weiss growls and grabbed a potted plant, uncaringly walking up to the register. "Noooooo! You're not thinking about it at all!" Ruby cried out. Weiss stops and mutters to the ceiling, "This insufferable and oblivious child I am stuck with forever and out is going to die, soon, or give me patience."

Penny walks through the door, causing a commotion with a struggling Onyx trying to break away. Everyone stares at her as she glances around the room, looking for "Salutations!" Penny waves at Weiss and Ruby. Weiss returns to staring at the ceiling, gripping the pot harder. "Grim, take me away."

Ruby, holding Weiss from behind, responds mystified, "Penny? I thought you were going home." "I was," answered Penny, "But I found a boy!" Penny presents the boy, dangling limply from his cloak, absolute embarrasement plastered on his face.

Ruby stares at the boy. "Em," she recognizes him, "… Lillium?" Onyx moans "Wuby? Can she put me down now?" Ruby lets go Weiss. "Uh, Penny you can let go of him." Penny lets go of Onyx, who crumples to the floor and crawls to Ruby, "She's scary! Why do you know her?!" Onyx was blubbering, so Ruby barely understood what he was saying. Patting his head, Ruby attempted to comfort him while turning to Penny, "Uh, Penny, why were you carrying him?"

"He was sneaking around, eavesdropping on us." Ruby looks disappointed, "'Lium, are you still stalking people?" Weiss turns quickly, "Stalking?!" Onyx regains some composure, "Of course! How else am I supposed to hone my tracking abilities? I actually just stumbled across you guys while following some green haired chick. I think she was picking pockets but I couldn't tell, she just kept bumping into people." Onyx sputtered out. Weiss glares at Onyx, who was still sitting on the floor and looking small.

"Oh, um, right! Introductions!" cried out Ruby. "Weiss, this is Lillium B. Moon. He normally goes by Lium though. Lium, this is Weiss Schnee-" "Princess of the Schnee dust company, pleased to make your acquaintance. Although my classmates have taken to calling my Onyx now," Weiss takes his curtsying hand, weary, whispers to Ruby, "Did you tell everyone about me?" "I told my friends about my teammates," Ruby replies, "And why Onyx? I doubt it's your cape, you've always had that."

Onyx smiles and pulls out an empty sheath. He stares at it, dumbfounded. "Wait… I had it locked and secure, it couldn't of fallen out." Sweat bullets quickly pushed their way down his face. "I JUST FINISHED IT! WHY?!"

"I have it!" Everyone turns to Penny, who held a black edged dagger gingerly, holding it close so it was nonthreatening to civilians that watched the kids exchange their volley of words. "An Ash-Stone dagger, made from the remnants of stone the ore Dust is mined from. Not the strongest metal, nor the lightest, but most reactive metal when infused with dust," stated Penny. Onyx stood agape, trying to find words to speak, "Once again. Who are you?"

Weiss pinches her brow, "Onyx, this is Penny. She's here for the tournament, I think," Weiss looks up, "Are you?" Penny smiles, "Yes I am!" Weiss nods, understanding something. Penny wonders what. "Wow, Lium, how'd you get a hold of that?" Ruby examines the dagger, "What is it," interjects Weiss, curious, "I see it's an Ash Dagger, but there's no cartridge here for anything." "That's when my fashion and my semblance kicks in," Onyx stated. He pulled up his sleeves and showed off a series of bracelets of varying colors. "These are infused with dust. My semblance lets me direct their energy from the cuffs to the dagger, the dagger reacts and I can make flashy blasts. Or deeper cuts. Depends on what I'm trying to do, really."Lium can channel the environment to work for him, and focusing on objects lets him degrade said object." Penny spoke up, "Or hold onto things better!" Ruby and Weiss look at Onyx. Onyx blushes, "She caught me climbing walls." "Huh," complimented Weiss.

"So what are you doing, Ruby," asked Onyx, looking around. Everyone realized they were in a plant shop still. People were staring. A kid was holding onto a woman's leg as they shuffled away. Someone was approaching them, the store owner. "Excuse me, I'm going to have to ask you to leave, you're disturbing the customers and…" he eyed the dagger and Penny's holstered gun, "well you're scaring people."

Everyone apologizes and leaves, except Ruby who ran back inside saying she wanted to grab something. Everyone stood around awkwardly. Weiss broke the silence, "So, Penny," she eyes Onyx, "how many people know about your… um, heritage?" Penny realizes Weiss is being discreet, "Only informed authorities within the military. I don't think anyone outside of that knows." "What heritage? Who are you related to," perked up Onyx, curious. Penny contemplates the question, unable to find an answer, "I'd rather not say," she replied, neutrally. Onyx smiles at her, "Oh, being coy, aren't you?"

Penny was bewildered and Weiss watched with wide eyes as Ruby came back to them with a pot in her hands. "I'm back!.. what'd I miss?" she noticed the awkwardness in the air between them all. Ignoring it, Ruby struts up to Penny, pot in hand. "Here you go!" Ruby hands off the pot to Penny. Inside the soil is a small stem with a white bud. Numberous other stems were coming out around the edges as well, almost reaching out. "It's called a heart vine, because the flowers bloom with little red heart petals inside." "Ruby?" "Yes?" "Why did you give me a plant?" Weiss poses, "That's what I wanted to know." Ruby, scratches her head, shy, "well, for progress."

Penny stares at the single bud, trying to understand whether it's her progress or the plants, or maybe even time. "Okay, thank you, Ruby." Ruby chuckles softly, "Wait," Weiss intervenes, "That made sense to you?" "Ruby often doesn't make sense," answered Penny. Onyx nods and Weiss sighs, "I guess so." Ruby whines, "Hey! What do you mean I don't make sense? **!"**

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about the duplicate chapters. My habit of mass downloading caused errors in chapters 16 and 18/19. They're fixed now, so you might want to jump back a bit. Also AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER! So yeah, I'll be making the original story from this point on, and new characters that have nothing to do with the RWBY squad will appear, since this story is Penny-centric. Don't worry, I'll still be involving everyone, we'll just have some personal connections that Penny makes too.**


	21. Chapter 21

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about mass uploading. There's twelve new chapters all at once, so if there's spelling errors and stuff, I apologize. Apart from that, I'm being busy with Univeristy applications and scholarship programs so that's why I hadn't uploaded recently. Sorry about that, I hope you guys enjoy this story more and more as I get into the nitty-grittiness!**

PoP: ch 21 – Pots [cont.]

Penny returns home, cradling the pot in her arms. Before her house she stops and stares at the building. Mr. Ironwood has his operations located in this house, even though he doesn't live here. Mr. Bernard lives there, as do several other chemists and scientists that Penny believes to be researchers, but they're changed out frequently on some kind of system designed by Ironwood and her father.

As massive as the house is and as well maintained it is, Penny realizes that it appears empty, unoccupied with closed windows and undisturbed walkways. Penny wasn't sure if anyone even used the house now that she thinks about it. Regardless, she walks down the trotted path she's made to the gazebo she lives under in the backyard. Even here, she realizes under her gazebo, there's nothing suggesting life. No people, no walking path, patio chairs and table sit undisturbed with accumulating dust and plants that have actually started to weather down, unattended to.

Penny stood in the center of the gazebo and realized she couldn't take the plant inside, not if she wanted the thing to grow. The plant needs sunlight and air, and Penny didn't need those things and didn't have them in her room. Penny glances around before looking up, realizing where the perfect spot would be.

A moment later, Penny stood away from her gazebo and gazed at the scene of the heart vine in its pot atop her doorway, pleased.


	22. Chapter 22

PoP: ch 22 – Another Significant Day

Penny rotates her arms, gripping tightly with the hand that had been damaged, checking her new prosthetic parts are functioning properly. The skin was unpatched, surgically removed and so her parts were showing. Penny realized this was the closest she'll be to being nude, since everything is added on top of her inner workings, Penny opens and closes her hands a few times to check consistency.

"Alright, that looks good, let's move on to your legs." Penny sits the body chair in front of her sleeping orb, the chair pulled out and laying flat, positioning Penny for mild surgical repairs. Mr. Bernard shuffles his chair closer to Penny's legs. The skin of each leg is removed and smooth plates cover the length of her leg, except for her previously damaged kneecap. That leg was missing. Several bolts and customized locks were arranged nearby. Mr. Bernard, with difficulty, picks up a case and lays it nearby. Unlocking it, Mr. Bernard removes a new prosthetic leg.

Penny watches him, her neck bending more than humanly possible as he positioned the leg where her kneecap is. "So Penny, recite to me how a leg operates." Penny lays her head back down. Mr. Bernard begins to pull out retracting parts from both ends of the legs and overlays them.

"The leg functions with muscles that extend from the curves of the pelvis to the femur and more muscles extending from the femur to the shin. Even there, some muscles extend from the shin to the toes of a human leg." Mr. Bernard clasps several sockets together, "How do they function?" "Several muscles are dedicated to the rotation of the leg, three responsible for bringing it back into place and for the basic swinging motion of the leg, there are sets of muscles on both front and back for pulling back and forth." Mr. Bernard pushes the leg together, which makes clinking sounds as they come together. Completing that, he began inserting a series of pins no larger than his pinky. "And this applies to your anatomy how?" "The body was required to reconstruct a body as close to human as possible, so the mannerisms of my limbs are as close to human as possible. Parts of my body had to be plated, hinged, geared and constantly lubricated to keep my body mimicking basic human motions."

Final pin in place, Mr. Bernard leans back and nods, "What does your body use as lubricant?" Penny stops staring at the ceiling and looks at Mr. Bernard, "You already know that." "I want you to say it," he responds, "Sit up." Penny swings upright, sitting without much effort, and Mr. Bernard gestures for her to swing her leg. Penny watches him as she speaks, "The lubricant reacts with the skin you designed producing calculated chemicals the secret the lubricant oils, filtering out any form of oxidation and preventing rust." "Why do you require specialized oil, Penny?" "The type of metal and mesh my body is composed of is designed to be heavily durable to blunt force trauma, and malleable enough to not be hammered out of place." "And what are you made out of?" Penny recalled Onyx standing happily with his dagger, "I'm 80% composed of purified Dust-Ash metal, simultaneously resistant to dust and aura based impacts attacks."

"So what does that mean, Penny?" Mr. Bernard puts the leg down. Penny looks at Mr. Bernard, "I am capable of enduring far more harsh conditions of combat then any Hunter, therefore fight and protect longer." "And what of the other 20%?" Penny gave him a look, "Carbon, Silicon and Germanium." "Does that mean anything?" "Those are the components that comprise my processors, powercore and observational data nodes that connect my brain to my senses."

Mr. Bernard hums in response, looking amazed. "You always ask these questions when I get a major repair, Mr. Bernard." "Oh, do I?" Penny nods. "Well…" he scoffs, "I'm only amazed at you. At what you are and where you're going." "What do you mean?" He smiles, but looks sad, "Do you know where you're going?"

Penny could feel another meaning behind his phrased question, but was unable to comprehend his meaning. He left Penny's room with a shrug and a wave, not saying another word.


	23. Chapter 23

h1PoP: ch 23 – Another Significant Day [cont.]/h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Four days, Penny has been locked away at home, not able to interact with the rest of the world while her parts had been realigned, calibrated and finally, just this morning, reconnected. Now Penny's grip is back to normal, her leg repaired and skin almost completely sealed back on. Her leg was still lacking skin, but it wasn't a concern under her clothing./p  
p class="MsoNormal"So Penny decides to venture outside, once again. Up the stairs she went until she stops before Mr. Ironwood. He was waiting for her under the edge of the gazebo. Something was hanging over his head, she noticed. Thin tendrils of vine reaches over the edge of the gazebo now. The heart vine is growing fast./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny gives her full attention to the man before her. "Mr. Ironwood, salutations!" "Hello Penny." "What brings you over here today?" Mr. Ironwood turns to see the garden, which Penny had renovated herself, retilling the ground and watering plants over the past two days. Already, the garden was more inviting, visually. "I came," he started, "to tell you about the tournament."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Thanks to our status, we can bypass the trials and get you directly into the tournament without going through any major exposure until the tournament actually begins itself. Until then, you are to stay out of the public eye as much as possible, no more scouting the town, understand." Penny salutes, "Yes sir!" Mr. Ironwood sniffs a little, "Given the restrictions, I grant you permission to use funds to fix this garden up if you so desire, just don't allow it to interfere with your training."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny recalls that, even damaged, Mr. Ironwood had Penny increase her experience with hand to combat through arena combat training. Now Penny understood several techniques she could use to bring down her opponents, and has learned close combat will lead to more unpredictable than her old method of fighting, which she realized is more of a bashing method then an actual skilled form./p  
p class="MsoNormal"But Penny has permission to garden with funding. "Thank you sir," she speaks, pleased. She wondered what she should do with the money, maybe tools to make the job easier than doing everything with a shovel and her blades./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Mr. Ironwood hesitates, "Also, I have a question." Penny stops thinking about green plants and gives him her full attention. His full attention was on her as well, which isn't something she's use to having. He was always thinking of missions and problems. He refuses to shift his gaze from Penny's. "You've been very daring lately, doing things that you've never done before and haven't been instructed to do. Is there a reason for that?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny contemplates, uncertain how to answer. She thinks long enough for Mr. Ironwood, who is human, to realize she's thinking for a very long time, and gets uncomfortable quickly. "Because," she starts. Mr. Ironwood looked wearily at her, "I don't know who Penny is right now. So I'm trying to learn." He stares at her until he looks off into the distance, then angrily at the floor. "Mr. Ironwood, are you okay?" inquires Penny with concern. He shook his head, "Don't call me Mr. Ironwood anymore, please. Just, Ironwood." Penny salutes him, proudly, "Yes, sir!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Mr. Ironw- Ironwood walks away, stiffly around the house. He casts a glance back at Penny, a look of worry on his face. Penny doesn't understand what causes him concern, but tries to figure out if it was something she said or did./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Unable to understand, Penny turns and gazes at the garden, planning what she's going to do for the future./p 


	24. Chapter 24

PoP: ch 23 – More Pages

Secilia has never had a rough night in her life, as she learns in the coming days. She's lived her whole life in a secured village, then travels with the Lord Jericho to the palace and lived within a castle. She's never travelled before, and was very uncomfortable with what that ultimately entailed. She knew she was spoiled, but complaining made the suffering easier. Shaota disagreed, and seemed to be as comfortable out in the world as he did while shackled up in the basement.

Shaota refuses to touch the Dragon sword, the only apparent resentment he's ever expressed. The old lady Yago and the other companions refuse to touch the cursed blade, but claim that Secilia is able to touch it without being cursed. So much to her added displeasure she lugs the sword around as well. They didn't ask her to carry anything else though, for which she was grateful.

Shaota asks of Secilia's past, and she shares with him her hometown and how she ends up in the castle with his brother. Shaota claims the few times he's seen his brother, he always appeared sad and bothered. His sister though, always seemed disturbed by Shaota's existence.

They travelled for days before being found by a rebel patrol, much to Secilia's pleasure. Yago announces that they'll be at the Rebel's HQ in a few days at last.


	25. Chapter 25

Ch 25 – Tournament Time

This is the day Penny has been waiting for. Penny's eyes come online and she patches up her jaw. Removing herself from her cradle, Penny moves with purpose in preparation. Showered, brushed, flexed and changed, Penny struts out of her room, with eagerness.

Atop the staircase, in the gazebo, Penny looks at the garden she has been renovating for the past week. Much of the soil is overturned, and the plants uprooted. Bags of topsoil and fertilizer lined the backyard patio, and tools placed carefully against the wall. There was even a pair of overalls, layered in dirt laying across a stone table.

Penny marches out of her home. Even outside the normally quiet gated community is alive, as people are wandering from their house to their cars, talking to each other. Noting the activity, Penny enters a car that waits for her. Inside is agents from Atlas military. Penny checks to see if anyone is a familiar face, but none of them are, once again. She keeps quiet as they drive, noticing one officer tense more as the drive went on.

They arrived without incident at the front gate of Beacon Academy. A crowd of onlookers gaze upon Penny as she exits her vehicle. She had taken an officer's preoffered hand. Ironwood instructed her to do so, as to present a proper lady apprearance, to make people underestimate her. Understanding the importance of expectations in combat, Penny took the officer's hand. She looked at the crowd and smiles and waves at the people that stopped to notice her. Some reporters point their camera at her but keep their distance.

Penny walks through the main doors into the school campus. The two agents trail behind her, letting her lead the way on the campus. The halls were littered with public officials and students looking to see the participants. Everyone cleared the way for Penny as she walks by, a few people whispers and recognizes her from being on the school campus, Penny catches someone mentioning "friend of team RWBY and JNPR".

There was a long walk from one side of the campus to The Colosseum. Not the one Penny had practiced at for the past few months, the Colosseum, which dates back to the academy's founding. It use to be the largest structure in kingdom, but times have changed and the school itself has gotten larger. Colosseum sits inside the crescent shaped academy, and is ovular going away from the school. Almost a hundred feet high, made of limestone, brick and mortar with rumors the base is coated in Ash, it's age was hidden only by the reinforcements built around the structure, giving it a solid appearance. The main archway was not the entrance Penny will be using, she will be using the competitors quarters to enter the arena. There were vines in the archway, Penny realized. Not the same vine's Ruby had given her, but they spread across the entire archway.

After looking over the Colosseum's entirety, Penny paces away, smiling. Hard to say, as Penny walks, whether she's excited, or scared for what's to come.


	26. Chapter 26

Ch 26 – Tournament Time [cont.]

Penny wasn't prepared for this.

Penny knew she would be fighting other TEAMS, being one of the few standalone contestants that applied for the tournament. She wasn't prepared to be bedded with them all. A total of ten individuals, participating in solo combat. Glancing around the room, Penny realizes that none of them are her fictional age either. Everyone is older, and clearly graduates of their respective academies.

Penny focuses on the tournament breakdown board to see what is happening in the tournament.

The tournament is only consisting of 64 combating teams total. Not all of those teams are 4 members, either. Some are two or three persons big. Ten of those teams are only one person combatants, and Penny was one of them. Mr. Ironwood had placed her under the combat name PETALS, and a list of fabricated history was underneath her name. In classic tournament fashion, everyone is broken down as randomly as can be, apparently with three of the single combatant facing off against each other before reaching the third round. Everything else was nicely divided, so Penny would have a lot to look out for as many teams as she could to prepare for her matches. If she made it to the quarterfinals, Penny would have to fight Team RWBY.

Penny's first match was a duo team, calling themselves Briar's Dogs. They're from the city of Vacuo, the arguably least civilized part of the world. Penny contemplated on the importance of the name.

Since it's the first round, and there were four matches going on at the same time on the battlefield, divided by some quickly erected cobblestone walls. Some displayed current battles ongoing, and her roommates were watching, interestedly. Penny stayed away, and watched them instead.

Four around one tv, three around another and another paced. Some were silent and a green armored one chattered nervously with anyone listening. A blue robed person laughed and engaged him in confidence, and tension dies among that tv clique. Someone walked over from the other tv to share in the conversation.

The green is average on all stats, looking for ways to bounce around his enemy until he finds a method that works. Not a specialist, more jack of all trades, judging from his attitude. Blue is a watcher of sorts, weighing in once he knows what to say. The other two are more warrior types, like Yang and Blake. The pacing individual made Penny think of Weiss, someone who knows they should be ready but need to reassure themselves. The one that walked over was waiting for a chance to jump in.

Penny realized the last person was missing. A quick glance reveals the missing individual to be sitting next to her. A woman in a tailored kimono, solid red with pale blue leaves with reinforced knotted boots. A widow's veil covers her head and her blonde hair clashed with her entire appearance in a long bedraggled manner, resting on her neck. She watched Penny interestedly, as Penny evaluates her. The woman chuckles after a moment of silence, which Penny realizes was awkward.

"Sorry, nice to meet you, my name is Glacia." The voice rang of cheeriness. "My name is Penny," replies Penny, "pleased to meet you!" "So, are you Atlas's golden girl?" Gold? "What do you mean," inquired Penny, quietly. The mention of gold bothers her. Glacia's smile falls, "Every kingdom gets to choose one team to put through without revealing their preliminary results, their golden group. They don't have to pass the prerequisites, preliminaries and are pushed into the first round without question," explains Glacia.

Oh, the special person is a gold person, Penny realizes. "I suppose so." Glacia cackles, "You _suppose_ so?" Penny nods, uncertain about Glacia. She carried herself clumsily, constantly rearranging herself and her attention was completely focused on Penny. "So," Glacia began, swallowing and smiling largely, "What's your semblance?"


	27. Chapter 27

h1Ch 27 – Tournament Time [cont.]/h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stares at Glacia, the gangling solo combatant. "Um, excuse me?" Glacia stares at Penny, "Your semblance, what is it?" Penny, mistrustful, "Why?" "They didn't tell you, didn't they, freshmen?" Penny decides Ruby provides the best reference of misunderstood responses, "Um…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Glacia stands up and shouts, "Rorouk!" The pacing individual stops and looks over. "Freshmen," continues Glacia, pointing at Penny, "educate her!" The pacing one glances at the battles onscreen and walks over. Upclose, he was wearing a simple T-shirt over padded armor. Pants too. He appears very unassuming, as he looks over the two girls "So, Glacia. Nice to see you again," he muttered numbly. "Glad to see you're not wrecked," comments Glacia, the levity of her voice irritates the individual. Uncertain, Penny waits to be noticed by him. Glancing at her, he observes, "'Freshman', huh. M'name's Rorouk, Vacuo solo combatant." He pauses, giving Penny a chance to introduce herself./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Freshman, freshman, freshman, where to start... Did anyone explain anything to you?" Rorouk spoke roughly, uninterested in actually teaching her, but interested in the words. Penny answers partially, believing it's what she should do as instructed to by Mr. Ironwood. "They explained that I would be roomed away until my match times, and upon those times I will be escorted to the arena for the fight."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rorouk shakes his head slightly, "No not that, about why there's single combatants in the tournament, did anyone tell you why that is?" Penny shakes her head, slowly, honestly confused, "No, I wasn't aware there was a reason." "Well you should be, you're one now," Rorouk said pointedly. He shuffles, tilting his head nervously. "Single combatants are the battlefield masters, basically people that are expected to be generals and warlords in the future, normally capable of both heavy and light combat, high magnitude semblance and extreme levels of prowess." Rorouk tilts his head again, "We're the monsters."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"I'm not alive so I'm not a monster, thought Penny. Hiccup. Glacia accepts that as a token of fear, cackling. "Freshman is a monster!" Penny looks at Rorouk, "Do you have to be a monster?" Rorouk nodded, "Yeah, I'm too strong. Almost as strong as Glacia" Glacia looks happier to have been mentioned, "Don't be scared again Rorouk! I love you anyways!" Penny realizes that Glacia is hiding horns under her hair as she smiles at Rorouk./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rorouk doesn't take comfort, and doesn't look uncomfortable either, instead mumbles and walks away returning to his pacing. Penny watches him until Glacia shakes her, "Hey, hey, so what's your semblance? Mine's environmental warping!" Penny tried to grasp what that meant, "What does environmental warping mean? Teleporting?" "Silly! I'm not telling you! You gotta have something to look forward to yourself! So what do you got?" Glacia smiles with pure amusement. Penny realizes this is a game, and she's supposed to give hints to what her semblance is. With Glacia almost solidly still, Penny considers the best explanation for her semblance. "Physical Foresight and control," stated Penny. No hiccup. And Penny realizes she has no simple explanation for what her semblance is, and decides to figure out how to best explain it at a later time./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Glacia rocks back, thinking hard. Her mouth opens and closes as she sounds out "telekenisis", "mimicry" and "heightened sensory control" and other words before cackling unexpectedly. "Petals have something to do with it, don't it? I don't get it!" Penny was taken aback with her cheery response, as an alarm rang out on a PA, announcing the end of the current battle bouts./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The battles are over and the four winning teams are announced, and the tournament brackets adjust themselves. However, the teams that were fighting were revealed to be all over the board, in apparently no order. With that said, the room collectively gathers and waits to hear which people are combating next. /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Sixty Four teams began. Four teams are in the next round, four are out of the tournament. And no one knows who's fighting next. Sensational, thinks Penny, now certain of her excitement and fear. /p 


	28. Chapter 28

Ch 28 – Delay of Game

The matches went on, four at a time in divided sections of the arena. Numerous, and brutal many of them are. Penny doesn't have trouble seeing all the battles and picking up all the data she could, except Glacia kept exclaiming and distracting everyone in the room with both her excitement and demeanor. Once, she collapses on top of Penny in a fit of excitement after seeing 'the adorable blonde' of Team JNPR get blasted aside into his opponents own allies, taking out his enemy by knockout and was concerned for their health. Rorouk kept picking her up after she fell each time, not chasing her around but as he passes by, pacing, still watching the screens. People even started passing around small snacks, like celery. Some had juice and water, and Rorouk took a soda, which actually calms him down slightly. No one let anything get near Glacia. Everyone was surprised when Penny cheers for Team RWBY, and wanted to know how the Team with a underclassmen leader managed to qualify. Penny hesitated to talk but quickly became part of the group as RWBY took out a team of Glyph users with harsh ease.

Several of the ten solo combatants didn't make it back. Everyone took sides when someone's friends were up to battle, and they all encouraged each other when their turns came. Somehow, both Penny, Glacia and Rorouk were in the last rounds of combat. Penny was fighting Briar's Dogs, but Glacia and Rorouk were fighting each other. They were the only solo combatants that would be facing each other until round four.

And so they knew when their turn was up. One of the solo combatants returned, and the others cheer, Penny claps enthusiastically. Surprisingly, he was battered by his opponents, some surprising tricks from duo team, but came out on top. Penny would have to remember to watch for tricks. As each solo combatant fought, it became apparent that Rorouk's explanation of what a solo combatant is was honest; each of them fought like long time veterans, either overwhelming their opponents or outmatching them completely. The only real issue this solo combatant had was a mismatch of semblance and tactics. Luck was a problem.

Finally, Penny's time had come. The matches came to an end and the final set of battles came around. The other soloists jeer compliments and wish freshmen Penny luck, and tell Rorouk to not let Glacia win. Rorouk doesn't respond, but Glacia exchanges a jolly volley of insults. Penny hesitates, but waves goodbye to her temporary companions and walks out with Rorouk and Glacia.


	29. Chapter 29

Ch 30– Delay of Game [cont.]

Penny watches as the entire wall dividing the arena collapses and a body comes crashing through. The flying, no, flung body, Rorouk, flips around and somehow rolls into a run. Turns out he ran the wrong way because the other divide wall, somehow collapses on him, in the shape of a hand. A cackling laughter echoes amidst the collapsing environment. Penny quickly rushes to grab the Briar Dog brothers and haul them away to safety, just as Rorouk glyphs the entire area of Penny's arena corner into a timestop zone, and he reflects all the debris towards what Penny hopes is Glacia. It's not. And then Glacia falls from the sky and, with a twist, an icepath manifests around her altering her course into a twist. The path leads straight into the floor, and suddenly burrows through the ground, a tunnel appearing immediately around her apparently. The Rorouk didn't have time to react from the spead of the tunnel forming directly at him and a butte blasts out of the ground, the size of a car, right at Rorouk with such speed that he's is sent flying out of sight.

Staring at the dirt tunnel, Penny watches as Glacia digs her way out without the same flow of aura she was using earlier and shakes her body like a dog, dust billowing off her kimono and absurdly blonde hair. Glacia notices Penny after she shakes herself. "PENNY!" she exclaims, overtly cheerful. She hops over, and notices the two boys. "Did you do that or did I do that?" she asks, worried. "Oh, don't worry, I beat them unconscious," explains Penny, attempting to ward off Glacia's concern.

The buzzer rang out repeatedly from the entire arena. And the dust settles enough for Penny to see what happened in Glacia and Rorouk's corner. There wasn't any floor to stand on that wasn't warped or turned to sand. Part of the Colosseum was actually crumbling below the audience, which explains the screaming. Glacia looks around and covers her ears, annoyed, "What, is Rorouk asleep again?"

Glacia is unstable, decides Penny, certain about that fact. Glacia tries to see wherever Rorouk went, and finally spots him milling about in the top floor of the stands, disqualified for being knocked out of the arena. He waves, lazily, looking unharmed and shirtless. Glacia waves back enthusiastically. "ROROUK! THAT WAS AWESOME! YOU DEFINITELY GOT BETTER!" she shouts happily.

The two Briar brothers woke up, scrambling when they realized everything was wrecked. "Woah, what's going on?" exclaims the older brother, more calm than his spinning younger brother. Glacia doesn't look at them, instead looking at the stands at the audience absently. Penny answers, "Glacia here broke into three different arenas in her fight," pointing to the sand pit that was the starting point.

The brothers marveled at the ruined grounds, and Glacia hums a tune, one Penny recognizes.


	30. Chapter 30

Ch 30– Delay of Game [cont.]

Penny watches as the entire wall dividing the arena collapses and a body comes crashing through. The flying, no, flung body, Rorouk, flips around and somehow rolls into a run. Turns out he ran the wrong way because the other divide wall, somehow collapses on him, in the shape of a hand. A cackling laughter echoes amidst the collapsing environment. Penny quickly rushes to grab the Briar Dog brothers and haul them away to safety, just as Rorouk glyphs the entire area of Penny's arena corner into a timestop zone, and he reflects all the debris towards what Penny hopes is Glacia. It's not. And then Glacia falls from the sky and, with a twist, an icepath manifests around her altering her course into a twist. The path leads straight into the floor, and suddenly burrows through the ground, a tunnel appearing immediately around her apparently. The Rorouk didn't have time to react from the spead of the tunnel forming directly at him and a butte blasts out of the ground, the size of a car, right at Rorouk with such speed that he's is sent flying out of sight.

Staring at the dirt tunnel, Penny watches as Glacia digs her way out without the same flow of aura she was using earlier and shakes her body like a dog, dust billowing off her kimono and absurdly blonde hair. Glacia notices Penny after she shakes herself. "PENNY!" she exclaims, overtly cheerful. She hops over, and notices the two boys. "Did you do that or did I do that?" she asks, worried. "Oh, don't worry, I beat them unconscious," explains Penny, attempting to ward off Glacia's concern.

The buzzer rang out repeatedly from the entire arena. And the dust settles enough for Penny to see what happened in Glacia and Rorouk's corner. There wasn't any floor to stand on that wasn't warped or turned to sand. Part of the Colosseum was actually crumbling below the audience, which explains the screaming. Glacia looks around and covers her ears, annoyed, "What, is Rorouk asleep again?"

Glacia is unstable, decides Penny, certain about that fact. Glacia tries to see wherever Rorouk went, and finally spots him milling about in the top floor of the stands, disqualified for being knocked out of the arena. He waves, lazily, looking unharmed and shirtless. Glacia waves back enthusiastically. "ROROUK! THAT WAS AWESOME! YOU DEFINITELY GOT BETTER!" she shouts happily.

The two Briar brothers woke up, scrambling when they realized everything was wrecked. "Woah, what's going on?" exclaims the older brother, more calm than his spinning younger brother. Glacia doesn't look at them, instead looking at the stands at the audience absently. Penny answers, "Glacia here broke into three different arenas in her fight," pointing to the sand pit that was the starting point.

The brothers marveled at the ruined grounds, and Glacia hums a tune, one Penny recognizes.


	31. Chapter 31

Ch 31 – Delay of Game [cont.]

Penny was escorted back into the room by two AK-290s with Glacia. Glacia was nearly skipping but stops outside the door, shock all over her face. Penny stands next to her, waiting for some kind of reaction. Glacia dropped her head, "Rorouk's gone. He's not here anymore." Fat droplets start falling. Penny recognizes sadness immediately but flusters in uncertainty. That feeling of fear came again, and she realizes that it was holding her back, restraining her movements and action.

Penny doesn't like that, but it doesn't make it easier to act. Glacia's hands covered her face now, and Penny wonders what to do, uncertain beyond words. Her hand lands on Glacia's shoulder, and Glacia flinches away violently. A blubber of words torrent out of her, absolutely incomprehensible but Glacia begins rubbing her eyes. With tears still coming she looks at Penny. "Genvy!" she cries, throwing herself atop Penny. Penny braces herself for Glacia's weight, but miscalculates, she was heavier than a flesh and bone human would be, and therefore collapses.

"I miss Rorouk!" Glacia cries out. Penny lays there under Glacia, unmoving, "But you had to fight him." Glacia climbs and looks Penny face to face, no longer crying but tears sat on her face, "I WANT to, but I don't want to. I want him." Penny feels discomfort, but not fear. Then she realizes a fact. "Do you want to hold him?" Penny asks. Glacia tenses up, looking away, "No. Maybe. Yes? I need him, he's like me. Maybe like you too." Glacia leans close, "Are you a monster too?"

Fear again, how can you be turned off, wonders Penny as she struggles to speak words, "I…" _I'm not a monster._ "I don't know." _Huh?_ Glacia leans back, curious, "You don't know?"

Why would she say she doesn't know? She was created to be a… a weapon. Weapons don't have minds. Why does she have a mind? Who gave that to her? Her father gave it to her. A weapon with a mind. She has a heart and soul. She has an aura. Only… people with hearts and souls can have an aura. So she's a person. But she's a robot. A robot with an aura. With a lot of power. A weapon. What is a weapon with a heart? A person made to be a weapon? What is she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she- she-

"I think I might have broken you, so I'll just wait here until you move again," commented Glacia, calmly. Penny snaps out of her mindset. Glacia was still holding herself over Penny, unmoving. Penny is still laying on the floor. "… Can I get up now?" asks Penny. "… Yes," responds Glacia. They both stand up.

Glacia's clothing hung like drapes, and Penny realizes the outfit is restricting her movements, and is also weighted to hold her down. But Glacia moves effortlessly, with a tear stained concerned face gazing at Penny. "Do you need to fix your head? I can show you to your room." Human metaphors, her head wasn't broken. Her mind was. Penny reaches up and touches her chestplate, grabbing clothes. Her head didn't have a brain, her brain was here. "I think that's a good idea," said Penny.

Glacia grabs Penny's hand and pulls her inside where the solo combatants quarters are. The first rooms are the dorms, with a room marked for Penny's private use. Next to it was Rorouk's room, Penny notices. Glacia opens the door and lets Penny walk ahead of her. Inside Glacia lays down on the bed, leaving space for Penny.

Penny stops, realizing something happening that's never happened before. Penny is going to sleep in a bed. She's always been capable of such things before, but never has she actually lain down to sleep. She's never lain down before either. Penny almost lays down without changing her clothes but notices Glacia didn't change either. Penny realizes she can't change though, because that would show her body to Glacia, which she isn't allowed to do without authorization from Mr. Ironwood

Penny lays down carefully, next to Glacia, who watched her with one eye, her face smothering the bed. "Ghdnit," Glacia muffles through the bed. Pleased, Penny responds, "Good night, Glacia."

Uncertain about how to sleep, Penny just lays on her back and just goes into a powersaving mode.


	32. Chapter 32

Ch 32– Recapping pages

Penny learns, just right now, that she can think in her power saving mode [PSM]. This is the first time she's used this programming, and so didn't realize she would still be conscious throughout the whole long night.

At a loss for what to do, Penny recounts her garden, and wonders if anyone is going to water the plants. Penny realizes that it's most unlikely, since no one else lives on the grounds. She continues to plan what to do with the plots of land she plowed, deciding that flower bushes would be best. As for which ones, she quickly decides on rose bushes, lilies, lavenders and daffodils, but at a loss for others. Anything else though? A tree would be nice, but what kind? Penny recalls a tree called a willow, and wonders if she could grow one anew. Apples and oranges would be nice, but she doesn't eat fruit, so that would be a a waste. The heart vine, Penny realizes, doesn't need much water to survive, and so it'll probably be the only one that she doesn't need to look after too much.

Having decided her garden, Penny realizes that only an hour has passed. She quickly calculates how much sleep she could muster before returning back to the tournament screens to see when her match will be. Seven more hours at the most.

Penny leaves her power saving mode [PSM] and turns to see Glacia. Her eyes were open and fixed on Penny's face. After a moment Penny realizes that Glacia is sleeping with her eyes open. REM activity occurs, and now Glacia is looking at the wall behind Penny.

Returning to PSM, Penny contemplates her entire time at Vale, ever since her first arrival. Upon arriving, accompanied her everywhere, explaining what her standing is in society and the importance of obeying orders. After that, Penny was given the parameters to create a map of the city without examining existing maps, and permission to gather information on various subjects in all public libraries and terminals that do concern the fiction and news and media. Penny realizes that she broke Mr. Ironwood's rule, and has been reading a fictional book for a while.

Penny recalls what she's read in the story, essentially rereading it in her memory. Secilia was to find a husband as determined to be her duty for girls her age. She chanced upon something greater and went for it, only to realize it wasn't worth it. Instead she discovers someone else and becomes friends, but for some reason being friends is a bad thing. Mr. Ironwood said that for her once. Her making friends are a bad thing.

Secilia was of marrying age. In the story, Penny realizes that marrying age is 16 years old. Penny doesn't expect to get married herself, she's not human or organic after all, but she realizes that means Yang, Blake, Weiss and… not Ruby. Those three girls are of marrying ages as well. Then she remembers the book is fiction, and therefore an alteration of society. Blake, Yang and Weiss are all about 17 years of age, and Ruby is 15 years old. The average marrying age for Vale is 20 years old.

Penny does a count, and realizes she's two hundred fifty four days old. She first went online on January First of this year, born in Atlas during the New Year Lantern Lit tradition, making use of Atlas's policy turn off all technology to see the universe at the end and beginning of each year to boost the power sources that will serve as her heart when she first came online. For next few days, she was uploaded with language and history, including her construction designs that haven't been implemented yet. Penny took pleasure in the knowledge she was given, but never asks for more. She was more interested in gathering information on the scientists around her. Her father was in charge of all of them, Mr. Polendina, a blonde elderly scientist that said the answer was "in the damn pennies" when Penny asked how she became active.

She met a lot of people the day she became active, including Mr. Ironwood. Penny realizes she saw someone that resembles Weiss too. Older though, and she was next to the person that was in charge of the Schnee Dust company. Penny realizes that she met Weiss's family the day she first came alive.

PSM off, Penny looks at Glacia again, who rolled over at some point and was laying sprawled over the bed. Glacia's hand was atop Penny's too, not holding but just laying atop. Checking the time, it was midnight. There was still a long time to go.

What's the best explanation for my semblance, Penny wonders.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: And this is when things get interesting. Honestly, I'm hoping you like the direction the story is taking, since it seems a shade darker than RWBY is going to be, and less focused on the fun silly aspects of RWBY. I don't apologize about that though, so sorry about not being sorry. Hope you're enjoying this! Or waiting in anticipation! I'll try to upload more than I'm currently doing.**


	33. Chapter 33

h1Ch 33– For Fools/h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny came out of PSM and left Glacia in her bed. Outside she found everyone waking up and already speculating on possible outcomes of the matches. One combatant, who calls himself Razid claim's his city's team will defeat RWBY. Then someone taunts Penny about sleeping with Glacia. Everyone hushes up quickly though, mourning the loss of Rorouk./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny contemplates their silence when Glacia wanders into the room like an empress. "… So tell me who's first," she says, expectantly. Everyone launches into an explanation of how the second round will work. First round had 32 matches between 64 combatants within the arena./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Now with the thirty two teams left in the running, they'll break it down into eight teams, today, with a challenge mode on the streets of Vale. Everyone will be placed randomly throughout the city and told to the first eight teams or combatants to win three battles will move to the semifinals./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stands to the side as everyone goes through the entire set up, explaining everything as Glacia swaggers over to the breakfast table and serves herself from some provided breakfast platters of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausages, waffles and giant slices of toast; yes she took bits of everything./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The rally of reports continues with the rules for disqualification which include excessive property damage, attempted murder, leaving the designated battle zone and nonparticipation. Tomorrow is a rest day for everyone before the semifinals begin./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Report complete, Glacia thanks everyone cheerfully, and everything goes back to normal, with her cheerfully eating away from everyone. Penny stands awkwardly on the sidelines, until she dares to ask one of the other compatriots about what just occurred. She approaches Razid and a blue hooded girl./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The blue hooded individual, named Lustor, answers with an explanation. "She's the queen. We're all just following along." Penny's more perplexed, "I'm not being told something important, am I?" Rzad chuckles, but explains./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Okay, Penny, that's your name right?" Penny confirms. Rzad continues, "You're new here, so let me tell you something obvious. We're not new. This is just the first public contest we've ever appeared in. Before this, we'd spend time jumping from one kingdom to the next, training all together. So we all know each other, like classmates. We've trained for years against each other."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny contemplates the significance of his explanation. "So Glacia's the leader than?" Rzad nods, "Yeah, or Rorouk is. So far no one's defeated him before, and Glacia's the only one that can challenge him. But she beat him under the rules of the tournament so Glacia's in charge now." Penny watches Glacia scarf down her third plate, "Is she a good leader?" Lustor chuckles, "She's not a leader at all," she answers, whispering, "She's just too strong and selfish to not listen too."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rzad leans over to Penny, "So who are you, newbie?" Penny doesn't lean away. "I'm Penny," she states. Lustor raises an eyeball, "Hometown? Birthplace? Training?" Penny understood the question, deciding to be honest and not use the cover story. "Atlas," the answer to all three questions. Lustor raises her eyebrows, "Well that was bland." "What, you're not giving us anything else," asks Rzad. Penny shakes her head, "I'm not allowed to." Rzad smiles, "Fair enough. That's standard fare with us single combatants."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Fanfare plays on the teve and the arena is revealed onscreen. Some nonmilitary official starts talking about grandeur and honor in friendly competition aiming to improve themselves together. He then explained the next round layout and the camera highlights that will follow the tournaments that would take the teams to the designated locations./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Speech ongoing, all the combatants rise and make their way out. It's time for round two./p 


	34. Chapter 34

h1Ch 34– For Fools [cont.]/h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny rides in a truck, examining a communication scroll on her wrist. Mr. Ironwood was attempting to give her knowledge and information regarding location and strategy across the city while Mr. Bernard quietly checked her parts. Penny listened impartially, having given Mr. Ironwood all this information he's reciting about the city layout. Finally Mr. Bernard interrupts Mr. Ironwood, "So, Penny, are you ready?" Penny realizes where they are, and the seconds ticking down./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'm combat ready," Penny states, excited. She steps off the vehicle onto the road. Two minutes to start./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The vehicle drives off, leaving Penny alone in the middle of the Shopping district. Penny waits a while, recognizing airborne drop ships flying around, and seeing other vehicles drop off other contestants. Penny pulls her blades out, her empetals/em, only taking two for each hand, holding off on taking the rest out. Surprise is a weapon she wishes to wield./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny waits, motionless. The wind blows gently. A bang echoes in the distance and Penny looks up, watching a single firework rise. Penny wondered how many people were watching it, as the firework blossomed with a bang. The scroll pings, and Penny charges, only pausing to get her bearings./p  
p class="MsoNormal"There was no goal, or major combat zone. The goal of the open area battle is to take out your enemy with ambushes, straight combat or intervention. Penny spots a trio of white clothed individuals, judges that are wandering to see the combatants observe the rules. One had a familiar pair of mouse ears. It might be Onyx, so the judges are going to be a mix of professional hunters and trusted Signal students./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny leaps from one roof to another, and gets hammered mid leap. Ambush. Bouncing off the wall and rolling into the pavement, Penny recovers quickly. A glance reveals two opponents, one with a massive shoulder mounted weapon, clubbish with numerous barrels out of the top. Not typical ammunition then, dust cells are most likely for energy weapon. The wielder was heavyset, with legs were lacking in mass so clearly the muscle of the team. Other individual had a rifle he held like a walking stick. The end was a large crystal container of dust. More containers lined his belt like grenades. Big shots, little ammunition apparently./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Big shots, dressed in white uniforms like nobles. Penny takes her drawn swords and converts them into gun form. Penny smiles happily as she opens fire. She takes aim with her second behind her. An unexpecting third member yelped as the ambushing girl dodges. Twirling, Penny continues an upclose assault against the girl with a blade, who dodges and blocks with a Yang-type arm mount, but across the whole arm. It's bladed at the edge too. Longer means more focused firepower, unlike Yang's cannon fire, this was built for inflicting focused damage./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The girl wards off Penny's assault long enough for the big one to close in on them, swinging his mace-cannon with pleasure. Penny punched him into the wall, the girl calls out his name as the one with the staff summoned shaped fire and directed it to tunnel around Penny. Penny fires straight into the tunnel source, narrowly missing the weilder as the girl aims. In the split second, Penny braces herself for the hit./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Exactly as planned, Penny took two shots in the abs, then fires back, unobstructed. The girl goes down. The staff man came crashing down, blasting raw fire at Penny. Unbothered, Penny swipes at him. She misses, he lands and gestures with his staff, unleashing more fire./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny can't feel things through her skin, but in the flames, Penny felt her aura warding off the flames. She supposed it was akin to someone touching another's skin. Penny wonders if she was more aware of her aura than others since it was her only sensation that didn't have to be computed for her to understand. Penny could actually sense the man move away, she saw him prepare to strike at her up close. So Penny aims and fires at his leg, making him fall flat. The large guy was also descending upon her, and Penny calculated she could endure his hit. In a split second, Penny sidesteps the large one and kicks him. He hits the wall. Penny picks him up and bashes him through the wall./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stands over her stirring opponents. Looking up, she saw a team of judges watching. One fiddles with his wrist, and Penny's wristband pings. On the display, Penny's image appears with a point up. The others remained unchanged. It returns to the main screen and Penny see's numerous other combatants with points. Team RWBY already had two points somehow./p  
p class="MsoNormal"By the time Penny looked up, the staff guy was helping the girl up and the big guy was picking himself up. They nod towards Penny, some form of acknowledgement. Penny walks out of the alley before glancing around. Penny decides to head towards the Plaza. It seemed like the best place for open combat./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The plaza area was empty, mostly. Penny walks around the fringes of the field, the sounds of battle echoing around the city ring clear here. Judges sit at the edge of the rooftops, watching her and possible presences. Penny decides to stick to the edge of the Plaza and circle the place so she doesn't get spotted./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Plan in action, Penny circles the plaza without incident. She looks both ways before crossing any buildings though, and when she came up to the café she traditionally passes when she wanders, she glances in there too./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Coco and Fox were having a conversation in sign language, and Velvet's back was to Penny. Everyone was focused on the conversation as Fox gestured his next statement. Yatsuhashi stares at Penny and Penny stares back. The argument continues. Yatsuhashi speaks, "Hello, Penny." Everyone stops and turns to her. Penny looks at everyone, smiles and throws her arm out, "Salutations!"/p 


	35. Chapter 35

h1Ch 35– It Hurts.../h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Coco responds first, "uh, hi Penny?" Penny glances at a stunned Velvet and perplexed Fox. "Have you guys beaten anyone yet," Penny asks. Velvet shakes her head. Penny inspects them, remembering the last time she saw them; Velvet is a specialist doctor support of the team. Apart from her, everyone is a heavy hitter, with the giant Yatsuhashi being both strong and fast, Coco being surprisingly agile and wicked, these two are the front of the team. Then there was Fox, the wild one of the group, fast, lethal, Penny regarded him as the biggest threat./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The four of them stood up, and were staring down at Penny. Penny focuses on Fox."By the way, I understand what it is you were trying to say before. I think it's sweet but I don't think a relationship with me would work out well for either of us." The sentence sinks in and no one can resist giving Fox a glance. Even Fox gives Coco a look of confusion. Penny draws her sword, Velvet and Yatsuhashi shout warnings and Penny opens fire on them. She flips the gun into sword mode and stands ready with two swords./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny missed Fox, the primary concern. His speed was on par with her processors. Yatsuhashi's sheer strength was secondary to Coco's heft semblance, but those could be dealt with. Fox dodged to Penny's left, Velvet took cover and Coco scrambles for protection. Yatsuhashi charges straight at Penny. Penny sees him coming and leaps over his horizontal slice, exposed for Yatsuhashi's winding vertical slam. Penny plants one of her swords to pull herself away before being hit in midair./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Fox comes at her; she almost didn't see him coming and fails to block his attack before she recovers from Yatsuhashi's attack. Fox strikes primarily with his elbows, which are edged. That doesn't mean he doesn't use his fists and legs. He was hard to predict./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Fox left her and Penny was alone. Penny quickly searches for the next assault and finds Yatsuhashi about to slice her in half, using a meteor strike. Penny drops the blade and with her free hand catches the blow with one hand. The pavement crumples under her feet. The blade Penny dropped becomes a Petal blade and swings widely at Fox./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Everyone keeps their distance as they register at the floating blade, Penny brings it closer. Fox eyes the blade and Penny warily, Yatsuhashi doesn't seem perturbed. Velvet stays in the back, apparently at conflict with herself and stunned by the power Penny just displayed. "Penny! Penny! What the hell was that," Velvet shouts. Penny glances at her, "Don't be scared, Velvet, you didn't think I would compete if I wasn't capable, right?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Coco smirks, and opens her handbag, and the massive mini-gun unfolds. Velvet gulps. Penny feels excitement again, and draws three more petals out to float as Penny takes the original back in hand./p 


	36. Chapter 36

h1Ch 36– It Hurts/h1  
p class="MsoNormal"Coco opens fire, Penny covers herself with two petals, the third swings down on top of her. Fox circles behind Penny and Yatsuhashi prepares to jump in. Velvet still stands watching looking for an angle to enter into the fray./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You want to ambush emthat/em," Juane asks, disturbed. "Well, I wanted too, but now that's crazy," Nora scratches her head. "Indeed," resigns Ren./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The petals blast out towards Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox, Penny charges at Velvet, who dodges Penny's flurry of swipes nimbly./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, at least I know you're sane now, Nora," comments Juane. He ponders for a moment./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stops her assault on Velvet and hammers Fox into the floor, catching him by surprise with her petals. Without looking, she throws one of her held swords at Coco, halting her actions./p  
p class="MsoNormal""We can do this." Phyrra stares at Juane, glancing at the fight and Juane, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you to say that." Juane shrugs, "Heh, I'm surprising myself lately."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Yatsuhashi closes in, fighting one handed with his blade. Penny steps back as he pushes forward with his blows, trading blows with sword on sword. Penny holds up under his strength. The petals float about as Penny fights./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Juane smiles nervously. "Okay, okay yeah. This is what we'll do."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;" align="center"/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Fox and throws him at Velvet. Coco whirs up for another barrage of gunfire but Penny charges her before it's ready. One slash, Coco dodges. Second slash, the gun is hammered, Coco loses balance. Third slash, Coco's eyes widen in shock. Penny glances back, seeing Velvet holding the strike back with her own threads, similar to Penny's wires. Velvet attempts to pull Penny back, who doesn't budge. Fox appears and grabs Coco and runs. Penny looks up in time to see Yatsuhashi ambushing her and stop him with her petals./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The impact still broke more ground below Penny. Glancing over at Velvet, Penny sees behind Velvet another combatant. Nora is positioning herself. Penny yanks Velvet closer, and gives her a shift heavy kick in the stomach. Coco yells almost savagely as Velvet collapses and Penny turns to see Coco charging at her./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny drops her swords and crosses her arms as Coco pulls back for a punch. Impact, Penny catches the fist. Penny was pushed back, her feet splintering the pavement. Coco's fist cracks bones, she grits her teeth, and gears her opposite leg for a heavy kick. Penny doesn't move to block, she braces herself for the hit. Neutralized, Penny pulls Coco's arm up higher, just as Phyrra's spear came by, stabbing Coco in the arm. Penny's hand prevents the spear from going deeper./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Coco cries out in pain. Penny lets go and pushes Coco off of her just as Nora comes flying at Penny, hammer blasting Penny into the cafe, bashing through tables, chairs, a window and a wall./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Battered, Penny rises, more shaken than unharmed. Penny checks the damage on her legs, hips and arms. Penny left a trail of blood stains across her body as she checked herself quickly, and Penny realizes when she looks at her hand that Coco's blood is on it. Coco's blood. Blood. A human's life fluids. She hurt someone. Penny also realizes that Coco's hand probably broke. Velvet is also probably injured as well. Team JNPR is there as well./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny's hurting people. She's supposed to protect people from bad guys. Why are they fighting now? For the test? Yes the test. It's supposed to be a game to show off the kingdom's protector's skills./p  
p class="MsoNormal"It's a war game. A war game meant to show off everyone's monsters. /p  
p class="MsoNormal"I am a monster./p  
p class="MsoNormal"I can stop them. I'm going to stop them. I can stop them from getting hurt by stopping them./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Slightly panicked, Penny walks out the front. Ren and Fox are fighting, Coco carries Velvet aside and Yatsuhashi stands before Juane and Phyrra, who's retrieved her gun. Penny raises her Petals again. Drawing everyone's attention, Penny looks for Nora. Nora cackles and fires down upon Penny, explosions bashing Penny around. Penny finds what she's looking for, and raises Coco's handbag mini-gun, and rains fire at Nora. Nora's barrage ends as she dodges./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Juane shouts at Phyrra and she turns away from Yatsuhashi and runs to Nora's aid. Penny tries to striker her with Petals, but Phyrra deflects the blows and gets close to Penny. Armed with one sword, Penny begins warding off Phyrra's attacks. Blow for blow, Penny blocks with her one sword and Penny pulls another two Petals from her pack. Phyrra barely dodges Penny's strike and Nora arrives back in the fray, blasting tables at Penny./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny takes the hit, but plants two Petals out in the pavement and pulls herself out onto the street. Everyone's attention is on her now, Penny stands in the middle of the two teams. Coco and Velvet are standing, Coco's hand is bandaged now and Velvet doesn't appear to be heavily injured. Fox and Ren take position aside eachother, staring down Penny. Juane and Yatsuhashi stand apart, but triangulating between each other and Penny. Phyrra and Nora stand side by side, Nora shifts her hammer to gun mode./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Two teams vs Penny. Penny realizes her seven Petals aren't going to be enough, and pulls out the last six. Juane audibly complains, meekly laughing. Velvet agrees for the most part and Coco is pissed. Penny shifts four Petals to gun mode./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny isn't excited anymore. She's actually rather disturbed, but there's no time for that now. She has to finish these fights first then she can ask Mr. Ironwood questions./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny opens fire./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;" align="center"/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/p  
p class="MsoNormal"The first shot went at Yatsuhashi, blasting him off his feet. The second blasts the floor under Velvet and Coco and the third Ren and Fox, making them sprint away. Nora was the last target, but Nora fires as well, trading a shot for a shot. Penny detonates the shot in midair with a Petal./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Hell breaks loose, Penny unleashes what could only be described as a barrage of attacks in every directs as her Petals whip around wildly. Tracking eight people was too much for her visually, and her aura perception couldn't compensate, so she aims at the general direct of everyone. Fox and Ren prove too elusive to prevent from approaching her, so she allows them to get close. Ren opens fire with his small caliber weapons, doing nothing to Penny. Fox gets closer and throws his arms out, attempting to tackle Penny. Penny takes the hit, but braces herself and flips Fox headfirst into the pavement. He flips across the floor and slides away, unconscious./p  
p class="MsoNormal"One down, seven to go, Penny turns to see Coco running for her mini-gun. Penny plants some Petals and launches herself at Coco, landing feet first on Coco's torso. Penny takes a Petal in hand and bashes Coco's ribs with the blunt side of the sword. Penny realizes there's padding when Coco doesn't respond in complete pain. Velvet begins trying to take control of their airborn Petals, tugging them towards herself. Then Juane leaps at Penny and begins an assault. Penny deflects and dodges most of his hits, and kicks his shield in. Then Yatsuhashi does his meteor strike again. Penny exerts herself and drags Velvet through the air into Yatsuhashi, sending them both crashing into the floor./p  
p class="MsoNormal"With her undamaged hand, Coco punches the inside of Penny's leg, causing her knees to buckle. Phyrra steps in then to drive Penny into the floor and Penny scares her off with a descent of Petals separating Penny from everyone. Coco was caught in the blades, alone with Penny. Nora began firing on the poorly erect barrier, destroying it and making an opening for Phyrra./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Coco's turtle neck sweater and swings her violently at Phyrra. The fabric tears from the shear force and Phyrra barely touched Penny's arm before being shoved aside. Coco tries to get up, dizzy, and reveals padding similar to Penny's chest piece, a padded armor designed to appear realistic under clothing. Penny shifts her attention to Phyrra, directing two Petals her way./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Phyrra gestures and Penny feels her aura shift. No, her aura gave way under Phyrra's aura. And Penny felt it in her arm, it tugged. Then her entire body tugged away. And pain. Penny went blind in pain./p 


End file.
